The Federal Criminal Police Office warns against Ozempic counterfeits. Several Austrians have already been hospitalized with potentially fatal side effects.
Innsbruck/Vienna – According to official information from the Austrian authorities, critical health-endangering situations have already occurred in several cases when using counterfeit Ozempic syringes. The Federal Criminal Police Office in Vienna said these could have led “to death without immediate medical treatment”. The diabetes drug is currently extremely popular as a slimming agent.
The Austrian Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG) previously reported only one known case of a 31-year-old woman from Salzburg who used a suspected counterfeit drug Ozempic to lose weight. She then had to be treated in a hospital with serious side effects. According to her lawyers, the woman had received the drug as a weight-loss injection from a Salzburg cosmetic surgeon.
Weight loss attempt with Ozempic could end fatally: Austrians probably received fake injection
Last week (October 19th), the BASG informed about new cases of several patients in Austria in whom treatment with apparently counterfeit Ozempic syringes had led to serious health-threatening side effects. The authority once again referred to the only legal source of supply via prescription and public pharmacies. In Austria this also includes doctors without a medicine cabinet.
The prescription medicine Ozempic contains the active ingredient semaglutide and is approved for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes. Recently, however, the injection has also been increasingly used as a weight loss aid. This resulted in limited availability of the medication for diabetics. This shortage is apparently being exploited by criminal organizations to bring counterfeits onto the market, according to the BASG.
Ozempic counterfeits apparently circulating in Austria – life-threatening consequences possible
Due to the untested quality of Ozempic counterfeits, possible contamination and unknown ingredients, they could be life-threatening in the worst case scenario. According to BASG, the Austrian patients who had to be treated in hospital after using the allegedly counterfeit Ozempic syringes suffered from serious side effects such as hypoglycemia and seizures. This is an indication that the product incorrectly contained insulin instead of the active ingredient semaglutide.
Together with the Federal Criminal Police Office (BK), the BASG therefore urgently warns against dubious sources of supply. According to the current status of the BK’s investigation, the apparently counterfeit “Ozempic” batch was obtained from a doctor based in Austria. In this case, the pre-filled pens are likely to come from a source other than a pharmacy. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, specimens from the affected batch could still be in circulation or could have been obtained from other doctors through dubious channels.
Ozempic counterfeits: Federal Criminal Police Office provides information about distinguishing features
According to a warning from the Federal Criminal Police Office, the following possible distinguishing features of Ozempic counterfeits compared to the original product are known so far:
- The blue of the fake pre-filled pen is darker than the original.
- The security window on the fake is completely transparent, while on the original it is covered in gray paint.
- The dose adjustment ring can be extended on the fake, which is not possible with the original.
- The labeling of the included needles is “32G” on the original, while those on the counterfeits are labeled “31G”.
- Source: BASG
According to her lawyers, the affected 31-year-old from Salzburg is only slightly overweight and not diabetic. She has received the drug “Ozempic” three times from a Salzburg doctor since the beginning of the year. The fourth time she was apparently sold a counterfeit version. Fortunately, the young woman only spent one night in the hospital.
But “it could have ended completely differently, namely with death,” her lawyer told the newspaper German Press Agency (dpa). The lawyer held out the prospect of civil and criminal action against the doctor and his supplier. The supplier is not a pharmacy, she said, without giving further details. (na/dpa)
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