Publisher Health

Several Austrians have been treated in hospital after using what was believed to be fake weight-loss drug, Ozempic.

Austria’s Federal Office for Safety in Health Care, the BASG, said they had reported “serious side effects” including low blood sugar and seizures.

This indicated that the drugs “falsely contained insulin” instead of Ozempic’s active ingredient, semaglutide, the BASG said.

The drug has become popular as a weight-loss treatment.

An investigation is under way.

The Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service, the BK, said those affected had received the syringes from a doctor based in Austria.

It warned that stocks of the fake drug may still be in circulation.

The counterfeit injection pens were coloured a darker blue than the genuine items, it added.

Austria’s Federal Office for Safety in Health Care has called on doctors and patients to check their supplies.

“Ozempic has been increasingly used as a “weight-loss” medication, for which the medicinal product is not approved,” it said

Both the Austrian police and the Ministry of Health have warned the public against using so-called weight-loss injections from “dubious sources”.

The European Medicines Agency, the EMA, recently warned that the increase in demand for Ozempic had led to “a shortage situation” for diabetic patients.

Last week, the EMA and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) warned that counterfeit Ozempic injection pens, from suppliers in Austria and Germany, had been identified at wholesalers in the UK and the EU.

The MHRA said: “All affected pens have been recalled and accounted for, and none of the pens have been supplied to UK patients.”

It was working closely with its regulatory partners internationally “to continue to maintain the security of the wider supply chain, both at home and abroad”, it said.