Weight-loss jabs have gone from celebrity secret to everyday conversation. But where demand soars, criminals follow, raising a simple question every one of us deserves a confident answer to: is the medicine in my hands the real thing?
For some, the answer has been frightening. In 2023, the UK’s medicines regulator warned that people had been admitted to hospital after using fake Ozempic and Saxenda pens bought outside legitimate channels. Some suffered hypoglycaemic shock or fell into a coma, signs that the pens may have contained insulin instead. Imagine believing you are taking a weight-loss jab and injecting something else entirely.
No single measure will stop people buying illegal medicines online and enforcement remains essential. But the regulated supply chain should offer the strongest possible safeguards, underpinned by global standards and globally unique identifiers that allow a medicine pack to be verified before it is dispensed.
In October 2025, officers raided a warehouse in Northampton and uncovered the UK’s first illicit weight-loss medicine factory. They found tens of thousands of empty pens waiting to be filled and more than 2,000 unlicensed tirzepatide and retatrutide pens awaiting dispatch.2 Slick packaging can now hide almost anything.
The Government has an opportunity and a responsibility to put in place a robust system to help prevent falsified medicines entering the regulated pharmacy supply chain. The UK does not need to copy any one existing model. It can learn from the approaches used in the EU and United States, then develop a verification system that works for patients, pharmacy teams and the NHS.
Protecting patients
Europe is fighting the same battle. Last year, the European Medicines Agency warned of a sharp rise in illegal weight-loss and diabetes jabs sold through fake websites and social media. Criminals do not respect borders, so our response should not stop at them either. Cooperation should be judged by one test: does it keep patients safer?
Under the EU Falsified Medicines Directive, most prescription medicines and certain non-prescription medicines carry a unique identifier in a 2D barcode, alongside an anti tampering device. The identifier is checked against a central repository at the point of dispensing. If the pack cannot be verified, the pharmacist receives an alert and can investigate further.
Since the new medicines arrangements under the Windsor Framework came into force in January 2025, the EU Falsified Medicines Directive no longer applies anywhere in the UK. Some packs still carry codes, but nothing requires them and there is no shared check behind them. Quietly and unintentionally, we have lost a layer of protection that patients across Europe still rely on.
A pragmatic opportunity
Putting that right does not mean reopening old arguments. It means developing safeguards that work for the NHS and patients, informed by established international approaches and able to work with trusted partners where this would strengthen patient safety.
The Government could begin by requiring accurate, standardised identifiers in machine readable form on medicine packs. It could then consult on unique pack serialisation, tamper-evident features and a UK verification capability, including how that system might exchange information with international partners.
A compromise for patient safety
No regulatory change is entirely effortless. Manufacturers, smaller suppliers and pharmacy teams will need time and support. Ministers must also ensure that stronger safeguards do not come at the expense of affordable and available medicines.
But the UK would not need to design an entirely new approach from scratch. It could adapt established international models to meet the needs of patients, pharmacy teams and the NHS.
The prize is worth pursuing: fewer falsified medicines reaching patients, better identification of affected packs when a safety issue arises and greater confidence for everyone collecting a prescription. We should not have to wait for tragedy before acting.
The Government should bring regulators, industry, pharmacists and patients together to agree a clear timetable. Ministers should also work with international partners on compatible standards, intelligence sharing and how verification systems could work together in future.
This is cooperation with a clear purpose, not a rerun of the Brexit debate. Progress could be measured through fewer falsified medicines reaching patients, effective investigation of verification alerts and greater confidence at the pharmacy counter.
Weight-loss medicines have shown how quickly criminals can exploit demand. The Government can turn that warning into stronger protection by developing a practical UK verification system, informed by established international approaches.
No one should have to gamble on what is inside the pack.