Crime Demand for weight-loss drugs fuels global rise in counterfeits

[Fluffernutter]

- Nausea, Diarrhea, Vomiting, Abdominal Pain, and Constipation

https://www.healthline.com/health/drugs/ozempic-side-effects#mild-side-effects

https://www.goodrx.com/ozempic/semaglutide-side-effects

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/semaglutide-drugs-ozempic-wegovy-mental-health-side-effects

 

[Rod1]

EVERYONE has addictive tendencies in one way or another. Lacking the willpower to curb them if they're negative, doesn't make it a "disease". I'd be more inclined to label hard drug addiction as a disease, since it has pretty significant side effects that keeps you addicted. I've never understood the people who claim they can't not eat an an entire pizza if they see it. That's just impulse control. You ain't gonna be climbing the walls, because you left a slice, or ate something healthy instead.

It's childish reasoning, that only hurts obese people and gives them an excuse not to turn it around.

Drugs are also an impulse control, in the end is the same internal reward system pervesion.

I can't understand people addicted to gambling but i won't pretend that the guy that just lost his house over it is somehow just lacking a bit of willpower.

 

[tenniswhiz]

By Patrick Wingrove and Maggie Fick
October 20, 202312:58 PM GMT-

Oct 20(Reuters) - Extraordinary demand for Novo Nordisk’s (NOVOb.CO) Ozempic and other drugs used for weight-loss is fueling a global surge in counterfeit versions, according to Reuters interviews with law enforcement, anti-counterfeiting and public health officials.

The U.S.-based Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI), an industry-backed organization that counts drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly (LLY.N) as members, said it is working with agencies, including Europol, Interpol and U.S. Homeland Security, as well as companies that help identify counterfeit products such as Israel’s BrandShield.

Their combined efforts include opening inquiries into complaints of fake drugs, trolling e-commerce and social media for purchase offers or advertisements and teaching customs officials how to spot counterfeits.

Novo’s Ozempic, approved to treat diabetes, contains the active ingredient semaglutide, which is also used in the company's weight loss drug, Wegovy.

Both are being used by people seeking to shed pounds, as is Lilly’s Mounjaro, which is currently approved for diabetes and expected to get a green-light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat obesity in the coming months. All three medicines are in short supply amid a global obesity epidemic and high rates of diabetes.

“These weight loss drugs are a hot topic right now because they’re on TV and getting a lot of media attention. If I’m a criminal organization, that’s the next opportunity I go ahead and exploit,” said Jim Mancuso, director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.

Mancuso said the agency is also working with Europol, Interpol and around 23 other law enforcement agencies on tracking weight-loss drugs to quell what they believe could become the worst tide of counterfeit lifestyle medicines since erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra.

Though Novo stresses that its medicines Ozempic and Wegovy are indicated for the treatment of diabetes and weight-loss, respectively, the weekly injection drugs have become household names in America for their use off-label as lifestyle treatments.

Novo said in a statement to Reuters that it works closely with PSI and other organisations to “share data accurately and provide an informed picture on the status of these crimes”, and collaborates with law enforcement and other authorities.

Lilly said its strategy includes deterring major counterfeiters of its products through investigations, internet monitoring and legal actions and partnering with government and non-government organizations and trade associations.

@Sinister at the gym

'SO MANY CASES'

Ozempic is the biggest target so far in Europe, according to a Europol official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak. Fake weight-loss drugs will be a key focus in the agency’s annual counterfeit medicines report, due next year, the official said.

“We have counterfeit products and stolen products,” the official said. “We have so many cases.”

Counterfeit Ozempic has already been found in at least 14 countries, including the UK, Germany, Egypt and Russia. Several have issued warnings to pharmacies and consumers to be vigilant about counterfeits, since it is not clear what they actually contain.

Germany's federal drug regulator last week urged pharmacies and drug distributors to be vigilant following the discovery of wholesale batches of fake Ozempic.

Britain’s regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), then said on Wednesday that injection pens falsely labelled as Ozempic had been identified at two UK wholesalers.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said use of such drugs could pose significant health risks.

"We will look online and if we find something that infringes (obesity drug trademarks) we'll get it taken down,” said Yoav Keren, BrandShield CEO. “Sometimes PSI and its members will do sample purchases," he said. When a consumer buys those fakes, “what you get are expired drugs, counterfeit drugs, or nothing,” he added.

An officer for Interpol said that counterfeit obesity drugs because of their high prices are largely being sold in affluent countries, including those in North America, Europe and the Middle East, unlike most fake drugs that tend to be marketed in poorer regions.

MHRA said reports related to potentially falsified GLP-1s, the class of drug that includes Wegovy, Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro, had risen from two in 2022 to as many as 20 this year.

Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority told Reuters that it has confiscated 233 units of counterfeit semaglutide compared with 32 units in 2022.

https://www.reuters.com/business/he...gs-fuels-global-rise-counterfeits-2023-10-20/

LOVE the Michelin Man looking Legos!

 

[LeonardoBjj]

Anti-obesity drugs can be boost for food makers, investors say
By Richa Naidu and David Randall

LONDON/NEW YORK, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The growth in demand for appetite suppressing anti-obesity drugs like Novo Nordisk's (NOVOb.CO) Wegovy presents opportunities for food manufacturers and the market's initially downbeat reaction may be overdone, investors say.

When Walmart (WMT.N) said this month that it saw a slight pullback in food consumption when people took the medication, it sparked a sell off in shares of companies including Nestle (NESN.S), the world's biggest packaged food maker.

"It feels like quite an overreaction," said Aviva portfolio manager Richard Saldanha. "People are extrapolating long-term consumer habits."

Wegovy has already proved a phenomenal success in the United States and is now being rolled out in some European markets including Norway, Denmark and Germany, prompting concerns in the consumer and retail industry that food sales may be impacted.

"Novo's breakthrough can definitely lead to major changes - both for food and beverage companies, but also for other health-related stocks within the obesity industry," said Kiran Aziz, head of responsible investments at Norway's biggest pension fund KLP, which holds stakes in both Novo Nordisk and a number of food companies.

She added, however, that more focus should be paid to the impact on supermarkets, where margins are thinner and the impact on profitability may be greater.

Nestle has already started work on products that "companion" weight loss drugs like Wegovy, CEO Mark Schneider said last week, which may include supplements to help compensate for the "loss of lean muscle mass" and "rapid regain of weight".

Those initiatives, and the limited availability of the drug as Novo struggles to keep up with demand, have persuaded some investors that the so-called "miracle drugs" will not hurt the industry in the long term.

The initial market reaction to the new class of weight-loss drugs is reminiscent of early hype over the metaverse, which has since flamed out as investors and companies realise that behaviour is slow to change, said Arda Ural, EY Americas Industry Markets Leader, Health Sciences and Wellness.

"The problem is that lower social economic groups have more obesity and risk factors, but the cost of taking these medications is a limiting factor," Ural said. "Making this affordable and starting to see the positive downstream impacts will be something that changes at glacial speed."

Still, the stock market impact left some food manufacturers "trembling," said John Plassard, senior investment specialist at Nestle investor Mirabaud Group.

"The companies most at risk could be those dedicated exclusively to 'junk food', or restaurant chains that don't offer much in the way of alternatives," he said.

Brian Frank, portfolio manager of the Frank Value fund, which has positions in Tyson Foods and Arcos Dorados, the largest McDonald's franchisee in the world, said he will look to build stakes in stocks that take a Wegovy-related hit.

"If the market is going to give me a discount I will happily take it," he said.

The uptake in appetite suppressing drugs seems to be a U.S.-led dynamic, said My Nguyen, research analyst at Legal & General Investment Management America. "Elsewhere, trends such as wealthier, more mobile middle classes in emerging countries can support shifts towards snacking and convenience foods."

A portfolio manager at Germany's Union Investments, which has stakes in Unilever (ULVR.L) and Coca Cola (KO.N), sounded a more cautious note, saying the perception that weight loss drugs will be bad for the industry will be hard to break.

"Everybody assumes people will take these pills, get slim, and eat less," they said. "And companies cannot prove that this is not true."

Reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by Matt Scuffham, Kirsten Donovan

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/anti-obesity-drugs-can-be-boost-food-makers-investors-say-2023-10-23/

 

[nhbbear]

As the good people of West Virginia have shown. Meth will let them retain more muscle mass than ozempic.

Actually, meth just became rampant in WV relatively recently. It was established in the southern part of the state near the KY border and made its way north beginning in 2017. It arrived when oil and gas workers began living in the state and working natural gas pads/wells. It disappeared for a little while and then really packed a wallop during the pandemic.

In the early 2000s, crack was the king in the state. Then, around 2007 or so, pain pills took over for several years and graduated to heroin, which is still a very large issue, especially fentanyl. And now, tranq, the popular horse tranquilizer that is ground zero in Philly is beginning to arrive in northern WV and western PA. Dealt with my first tranq od yesterday, in fact. Fucking disgusting creature in her 20s that was admitted to the hospital I work at. We had to do a room search after her bf visited her and she became unresponsive soon after. One guard was checking her bags and I started poking through the trash right up until the point I realized the entire garbage can was filled with soiled diapers. I yelped and backed up and told the nursing supervisor that I didn’t care if there was solid gold in the bottom of the can, I wasn’t going in there again. She was so unresponsive the night she was admitted until yesterday, which is why she was in diapers and shutting herself. Imagine, being in your 20s and having to wear diapers because you can’t take care of yourself. She even tried to fake shock and anger at the very thought that she would use drugs in the hospital-despite her pissing hotter than the sun.

Anyway, if you don’t wish to take my word and experience on this, here’s a link

https://rockinst.org/blog/the-second-wave-of-the-methamphetamine-epidemic/

 

[nhbbear]

This will only drive up prices and demand because fatties would rather take a shot of a drug not originally intended to be used for weight loss than to work to lose the weight through hard work. Just watch the the pharmaceutical companies absolutely raking in shit tons of money without competition. I fucking hate big pharma and how they exploit people and even the insurance companies selling doses of medication that costs very little to make that they sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars, especially life saving and necessary drugs like cancer medication while the price of the highly addictive opiates are cheap af. Seriously, you can get hundreds of pain pills for $10 while a single dose of a cancer treatment is thousands of dollars and made for under one dollar.

 

[emefer]

- Nausea, Diarrhea, Vomiting, Abdominal Pain, and Constipation

https://www.healthline.com/health/drugs/ozempic-side-effects#mild-side-effects

https://www.goodrx.com/ozempic/semaglutide-side-effects

Just add some pepto to the injection.

 

[Scerpi]

Depends from content.

In general if you are fit to train and do have a lot of free time you might cut weight without any diet or pills.
Part of fat will be used to generate energy....

If there are health problems to train hard ....then diet etc....why not.

Miracle pills are expensive and without any warranty....

Weight loss has zero to do with training and/or exercise

Don't get me wrong, there's a multitude of health benefits to training, lifting and cardio... but losing weight is almost strictly diet.

I've gain weight while training for a half marathon at Glacier. Running 50-75 miles per week. Thought I could let my diet go since... Put on almost 10 lbs in a few weeks.

I was pissed, but was saying is true... "You can't outrun a bad diet"

 

[Scerpi]

Telling people that obesity was an uncontrollable disease probably didn't help much.

GOAT doctor

 

[SandisLL]

Weight loss has zero to do with training and/or exercise

Don't get me wrong, there's a multitude of health benefits to training, lifting and cardio... but losing weight is almost strictly diet.

I've gain weight while training for a half marathon at Glacier. Running 50-75 miles per week. Thought I could let my diet go since... Put on almost 10 lbs in a few weeks.

I was pissed, but was saying is true... "You can't outrun a bad diet"

Partially yeah.

While one from methods how to maintain ability to weight in ...is to keep walking around weight higher than you should make in weight ins.... also ofc here is rehydration...
Ofc usually sport doctors and nutritionists are used to keep in schedule.

For example if you are walking around 214 lbs...you might make 199 lbs after pre fight training camp etc stuff.....
Cos you consume damn a lot of energy.

 

[Hdfi]

1 billion people are obese, it is already an epidemic.

 

[Scerpi]

Partially yeah.

While one from methods how to maintain ability to weight in ...is to keep walking around weight higher than you should make in weight ins.... also ofc here is rehydration...
Ofc usually sport doctors and nutritionists are used to keep in schedule.

For example if you are walking around 214 lbs...you might make 199 lbs after pre fight training camp etc stuff.....
Cos you consume damn a lot of energy.

It's almost all diet... exclusively

And are you referring to fighters dropping massive amounts of water weight in the final days to weigh ins? Off Season weight for a 205 fighter is closer to 230lbs.

You can lose weight with little to no exercise if diet is on point
If you're diet is shit, then you're not losing weight regardless how much you exercise... Excluding someone like competitive swimmers, who can burn 10,000 calories in day. But the average person isn't able to workout for 6+ hours a day.

So.. fix your diet #1. Then exercise if you want to lose faster.. but not necessary.

 

[LeonardoBjj]

This will only drive up prices and demand because fatties would rather take a shot of a drug not originally intended to be used for weight loss than to work to lose the weight through hard work. Just watch the the pharmaceutical companies absolutely raking in shit tons of money without competition. I fucking hate big pharma and how they exploit people and even the insurance companies selling doses of medication that costs very little to make that they sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars, especially life saving and necessary drugs like cancer medication while the price of the highly addictive opiates are cheap af. Seriously, you can get hundreds of pain pills for $10 while a single dose of a cancer treatment is thousands of dollars and made for under one dollar.

- It's become rampant in bb too. Were already talking about guys that take rat poison to look schreded. Is far easer to get some weight loss medicine than a trt prescription!

I dont get surprised that people will prefer to spend money on some magic potion, than workout.

 

[LeonardoBjj]

It's almost all diet... exclusively

And are you referring to fighters dropping massive amounts of water weight in the final days to weigh ins? Off Season weight for a 205 fighter is closer to 230lbs.

You can lose weight with little to no exercise if diet is on point
If you're diet is shit, then you're not losing weight regardless how much you exercise... Excluding someone like competitive swimmers, who can burn 10,000 calories in day. But the average person isn't able to workout for 6+ hours a day.

So.. fix your diet #1. Then exercise if you want to lose faster.. but not necessary.

- We can lose weight exercising, but usually muscle mass go down too. We end looking more like Dicaprio than looking like Zac Efron.

 

[HOLA]

Jonah Hill must be doing dat there Ozempic. Dude looks like Tom Hanks from Castaway now.

 

[Beechwood]

I just quickly scanned the article but not surprised in the least that there are knock off weight loss drugs. My father for awhile worked for a drug company years ago and if i remember correctly the company would add some ingredient that could be tested for, indicating it was the real product.

 

[NoSmilez]

I don't think there is a large market share in terms of counterfeits. The issue that bothers them is probably compounding pharmacies that manufacture the generic drug. The FDA allows compounding pharmacies to make a copy of the drug if there is a shortage. There are also labs overseas that manufacture the drug and ship it to America. Resellers(dealers) in America resell it to the public. This type of sale is grey area. They explicitly put on their label that it is not for human consumption and it's for research purposes. They also play around with the formulation by making the sodium or acetate version of the drug so they aren't exactly selling the same thing as the branded drug.

I am assuming there will be a huge crackdown. I remember some of those anti aging clinics source their gear from Chinese labs. It's a bit of a shit show when it comes to regulations.

 

[blackheart]

I think my company has Eli Lilly as a client. I wonder how that team is handling this. I'm glad I don't have to worry about dealing with serious shit like removing counterfeit pills.

 

[cincymma79]

Should we be shocked that big fat asses would also hog medicine for being big fat asses

 

[LeonardoBjj]

Jonah Hill must be doing dat there Ozempic. Dude looks like Tom Hanks from Castaway now.

- Guy looks awful. Should've stayed fat.