Ozempic box and contents on a table in Dudley, North Tyneside, England, October 31, 2023.Reuters/Lee Smith/File photo Obtaining license rights
Nov 28 (Reuters) – Lebanese health authorities say 11 people have suffered dangerous hypoglycemic attacks in Lebanon this year, including one with a counterfeit version of Novo Nordisk’s (NOVOb.CO) diabetes drug Ozempic. The patient needed to be hospitalized because he was injected with something suspected to be.
Rita Karam, head of Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, said authorities suspected the drug was counterfeit after discovering that the doses were different from those calibrated for the genuine Ozempic injection pen.
Explosive demand for Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs such as Eli Lilly’s (LLY.N) Munjaro and Novo’s Wigovy is fueling a global surge in counterfeit products, the law says. This was revealed in Reuters interviews with enforcement agencies, anti-counterfeiting and public health officials last month. .
Counterfeit Ozempics have already been found in at least 17 countries, including the UK, Germany, Egypt and Russia. Several companies have issued warnings to pharmacies and consumers to be on the lookout for counterfeit products, as it is unclear what is actually in them.
Karam said the ministry had opened investigations into 11 cases, but in most cases the source and batch number of the drugs in question were not identified, making it difficult to determine what the victims had taken. He said that.
Karam said three of the people who took the drug, believed to be fake Ozempic, were taking it to manage diabetes and four were taking it to manage their weight. Four others injected the drug for “unspecified indications.”
Diabetics need to closely control their blood sugar, and various medications such as Ozempic can be used to do this. If blood sugar or glucose levels get too low, you can experience hypoglycemia, which can lead to symptoms such as headache and dizziness, which can progress to loss of consciousness and seizures.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health announced two recalls related to Ozempic in January 2023, according to the ministry’s website. Karam said no cases of potentially counterfeit Ozempic were reported in Lebanon in 2022.
Novo Nordisk said it investigates and reports all cases of counterfeiting to local authorities and has created a guide for healthcare providers in the Middle East on how to spot counterfeit medicines.
More than a quarter of Lebanese adults are obese, according to 2017 statistics from the World Obesity Federation. Obesity is closely related to her type 2 diabetes, which is the most common disease.
In 2021, about 9% of adults in Lebanon had diabetes, compared to about 14% in the United States, according to data from the International Diabetes Federation.
Karam said Ozempic is neither purchased nor provided by the Ministry of Public Health.
Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wigovy, which contains the same active ingredient semaglutide as Ozempic, was shown in late-stage trials to help patients lose an average of 15% of their body weight.
The scramble for supplies of the powerful pound cutter has led to Ozempic shortages in several countries, including the UK, Germany, Belgium and the US.
Sources familiar with anti-counterfeiting efforts told Reuters last month that markets where fake weight loss drugs are most prevalent include Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries.
Several people in Austria have been hospitalized with hypoglycemia after taking potentially fake Ozempic. The country’s health and safety regulator said the side effects indicate the product contains insulin rather than semaglutide.
Belgium’s medicines regulator announced last month that it had seized a counterfeit version of Ozempic, which was found to contain insulin in the injection pen.
Reporting by Patrick Wingrove.Edited by: Caroline Huemer and Bill Berkrot
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