The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has made the world’s largest seizure of unlicensed weight-loss medicines after raiding a factory producing counterfeit jabs labelled as containing ingredients from Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro.
Global pharmaceutical firms and regulators have voiced growing concern over the surge in counterfeit and unregulated weight-loss drugs, which are being sold online and through underground networks worldwide.
During the raid, the MHRA seized 2,000 injection pens labelled as containing tirzepatide — the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound — and retatrutide, an experimental obesity drug still undergoing clinical trials. Tens of thousands of empty pens and raw chemicals were also confiscated.
Eli Lilly hailed the crackdown as “a direct strike against the criminal elements that are risking people’s lives,” warning that consumers purchasing from unregulated sources cannot know what their medicines truly contain.
First Factory of Its Kind in the UK
According to the MHRA, the facility uncovered in central England was the first illegal factory of this type found in Britain.
Health Minister Wes Streeting described the operation as “a victory in the fight against shameless criminals putting lives at risk by peddling dangerous and illegal weight-loss jabs for profit.”
“These unregulated products, made with no regard for safety or quality, posed a major risk to unwitting customers,” he added.
Both tirzepatide and retatrutide are drugs that mimic hormones to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar. In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) prescribes such medications only to patients meeting strict eligibility criteria, while private buyers can face costs of several hundred pounds per month.
In the US, some individuals have turned to purchasing raw ingredients online to create their own GLP-1-based injections — such as semaglutide, the compound in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy — citing high costs and limited availability.
Health officials continue to warn that these do-it-yourself formulations carry severe risks, including contamination, incorrect dosing, and lack of safety oversight.
