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

Revealed: the crypto entrepreneur linked to illegal weight-loss drug operation

View of industrial building with metal door, a rusted metal container and parked car
A unit on a Northampton industrial estate was raided in an operation led by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian

Wedged between an air-compressor service and an auto repair shop on a Northampton industrial estate is an undistinguished red-brick unit that was, until recently, the base for a major illegal weight-loss drug operation.

In late October, enforcement officers arrived here for a two-day raid, seizing thousands of unlicensed Alluvi-branded weight-loss pens, raw chemical ingredients, manufacturing equipment, packaging materials and £20,000 in cash. Some of the pens were labelled as containing retatrutide – a powerful GLP-1 agonist still in clinical trials, unapproved for medical use but widely hyped online as the next Mounjaro.

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