No-Prescription Online Semaglutide Poses Multiple Risks
Semaglutide merchandise supplied on-line with out a prescription will also pose a pair of dangers to customers, new study stumbled on.
Of six take a look at purchases of semaglutide merchandise supplied on-line with out a prescription, most gripping three were basically obtained. The opposite three distributors demanded extra fee. Of the three delivered, one was doubtlessly sinful, and all three contained elevated concentrations of semaglutide than indicated on the cost, doubtlessly ensuing in an overdose.
“Semaglutide merchandise are actively being supplied with out prescription by illegal on-line pharmacies, with distributors shipping unregistered and falsified merchandise,” wrote Amir Reza Ashraf, PharmD, of the College of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary, and colleagues in their paper, published on-line on August 2, 2024, in JAMA Network Originate.
The survey was performed in July 2023, however its e-newsletter comes per week after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alert about dosing errors in compounded semaglutide, which normally does require a prescription.
Scrutinize co-author Tim Ample. Mackey, PhD, told Medscape Clinical Records, “Compounding pharmacies are one other part of this possibility that has develop into more eminent now however arguably have more controls if prescribed wisely, while the inclined ‘no-prescription’ on-line market calm exists and can continue to conform.”
General, said Mackey, professor of world health on the College of California San Diego and director of the Global Health Policy and Records Institute, “customers take a extensive possibility when they give the influence of being to fetch semaglutide initiate air of a authentic physician-patient relationship and might maybe maybe most gripping pick up semaglutide from an authorized and authorized pharmacy after discussing the hazards versus advantages with their supplier.”
He advises clinicians to actively check with their sufferers the hazards associated with semaglutide and, particularly, the dangers of making an are trying to web it on-line. “Clinicians can act as a foremost recordsdata source for patient safety recordsdata by letting their sufferers know about these dangers…and additionally asking where sufferers pick up their medicines in case they are taking into account reviews of harmful events or other patient safety components.”
Buyer Beware: Online Semaglutide Purchases Not as They Appear
The investigators began by browsing on-line for net sites advertising semaglutide with out a prescription. They ordered merchandise from six on-line distributors that confirmed up prominently in the searches. Of these, three supplied prefilled 0.25 mg/dose semaglutide injection pens, while the opposite three supplied vials of lyophilized semaglutide powder to be reconstituted to solution for injection. Prices for the smallest dose and quantity ranged from $113 to $360.
Finest three of the ordered merchandise — all vials — basically confirmed up. The advertised prefilled pens were all nondelivery scams, with requests for an additional fee of $650-$1200 purportedly to determined customs. This was confirmed as false by customs agencies, the authors considerable.
The three vial merchandise were obtained and assessed physically, of every the packaging and the enlighten product, by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to search out out purity and peptide focus, and microbiologically, to search sterility.
The utilization of a guidelines from the International Pharmaceutical Federation, Ashraf and colleagues stumbled on “determined discrepancies in regulatory registration recordsdata, elegant labeling, and proof merchandise were likely unregistered or unlicensed.”
Quality sorting out confirmed that one sample had an elevated presence of endotoxin suggesting probably contamination. While all three basically did own semaglutide, the measured yelp material exceeded the labeled quantity by 29%-39%, posing a possibility that customers will also fetch up to 39% more than supposed per injection, “in particular regarding if a consumer has to reconstitute and self-inject,” Mackey considerable.
Not decrease than this form of net sites on this survey, “semaspace.com,” was therefore sent a warning letter by the FDA for unauthorized semaglutide sale, Mackey considerable.
Sadly, he told Medscape Clinical Records, these dangers are inclined to persist. “There is a tough market opportunity to introduce unsuitable and unauthorized variations of semaglutide. Counterfeiters will continue to innovate with where they sell merchandise, what merchandise they provide, and the arrangement in which they lie to customers about the protection and legality of what they are offering on-line. We’re likely correct at the start of counterfeiting of semaglutide, and it’s likely that these false merchandise will develop into endemic in our provide chain.”
The study was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund. The authors had no further disclosures.
Miriam E. Tucker is a contract journalist based totally in the Washington, DC, plan. She is a accepted contributor to Medscape Clinical Records, with other work exhibiting in the Washington Submit, NPR’s Pictures weblog, and Diatribe. She is on X @MiriamETucker.
