South Africa's medicines regulators are struggling to keep pace with a growing illegal trade in weight-loss injections, including copycat versions made by compounding pharmacies, the health journalism unit Bhekisisa reports in the Daily Maverick.
Making such drugs in bulk, or with unregistered or illegally imported ingredients, is illegal. In June the Gauteng High Court ordered a Tshwane pharmacy to stop producing semaglutide products after large quantities were seized. Industry leader Stavros Nicolaou warned that the gains could be lost without clearer rules from regulators.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority said it had received about 600 complaints this financial year about fake or unlicensed medicines sold online, in gyms and even hairdressers. Its compliance head said people die without regulators ever learning of it.
Source: Daily Maverick
