November 18, 2024: Regulators struggle with GLP-1s in the U.S. and abroad
Domestic News
Novo Nordisk filed five more lawsuits against businesses selling compounded semaglutide.
States where lawsuits have been filed against businesses selling compounded injectables for diabetes and weight-loss. More here.
On November 8, Novo Nordisk sued five Illinois-based medical spas and clinics for allegedly promoting compounded semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, as if it were the same as the FDA-approved commercial product. These suits follow dozens with similar claims filed by Novo and tirzepatide-maker Eli Lilly. Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide have come under scrutiny because of concerns about the source, safety and quality of the products. Learn more, and read these complaints on our compounded injectables lawsuits page.
The University of California San Diego’s Global Health and Data Policy Institute Director Dr. Tim Mackey discussed the unregulated sale of compounded semaglutide online in a recent Business Insider video.
Customs and Border agents in Cincinnati listed counterfeit Botox and illegally imported Xanax, amoxicillin, and testosterone-based steroids among examples of the $163 million’s worth of counterfeit items their team seized between October 2023 and October 2024.
Men in Massachusetts and California were sentenced to ten and 15 years, respectively, in separate cases involving the illegal use of pill presses to make fentanyl and methamphetamine pills, some of which were in the form of prescription medicines.
International News
Regulators in South Africa and Libya announced counterfeits in circulation. Fake medicine seizures in India and Nigeria.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority warned residents about an increase in counterfeit GLP-1 products such as Ozempic being sold through websites, social media, and other informal channels.
A judge in the United Kingdom sentenced five people for a cumulative six years in prison for their roles in a gang that made and sold counterfeit prescription pills. A 2019 raid of an industrial unit related to the case yielded machinery and raw materials to produce thousands of etizolam tablets. Photographs from the bust show volumes of yellow tablets and labels for 10 mg diazepam pills.
Regulators in Libya warned that a counterfeit version of the cancer drug Avastin had been found circulating in the country.
Authorities in Mohali, India raided a factory, seizing thousands of counterfeit antibiotics and high blood pressure treatments, loose tablets, manufacturing materials and medicine-making machines.
Images from the October 2019 raid of a counterfeit drug operation. (Humberside Police, UK)
Indian authorities also shut down two factories in Agra that they say were making fake versions of popular animal medicines, including Ivermectin, for export.
Nigerian Customs Command intercepted seven million tablets of counterfeit antibiotics for the treatment of gonorrhea.