“I couldn’t stop being sick. My side and my back were hurting and I just felt like my body was totally shutting down.” That’s how one woman described the side effects of weight loss injections she’d bought off-label in a BBC investigation. Her experience is far from uncommon. Medics in the UK are even reporting that young girls are ending up in A&E as a result of taking these products illicitly.
Concerns about the off-label misuse of drugs containing semaglutide (such as Ozempic and Wegovy) recently prompted NHS England’s medical director to warn that they shouldn’t be seen as a “quick fix” to get beach body ready. Speaking to the NHS Confederation, an organisation whose members provide services to the NHS, Stephen Powis (national medical director of NHS England) cautioned that these “powerful medications” can be dangerous, and are unsuitable for people “who are otherwise healthy who just want to lose a few pounds”.
