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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Sarah Marsh Consumer affairs correspondent

Crime gangs in UK making weight-loss drugs with ‘sophisticated’ fake branding

Andy Morling United Kingdom MHRA The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
Counterfeit retatrutide seized in an MHRA raid last month
Counterfeit retatrutide seized in an MHRA raid last month Photograph: MHRA

Organised crime gangs have begun manufacturing their own branded weight-loss drugs, designed to look like legitimate medicines, in what authorities warn is a significant threat.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the trend had only just emerged, leading them to conduct the largest single seizure of trafficked weight-loss drugs ever recorded by any global law enforcement agency.

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