Government bans replicas of weight loss drug Ozempic, as vision of raid on filthy lab released
The Federal Health Minister will ban all compounding pharmacists from making their own versions of weight loss drugs like Ozempic over safety concerns. It comes after a Four Corners investigation revealed replica Ozempic was being illegally manufactured in Australia and exported overseas.
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00:00 Behind this Western Sydney hair loss clinic, TGA investigators found a filthy lab filled
00:07 with kitchen mixers, blenders and chemicals which regulators allege were used to cook
00:13 up replica Zempik.
00:14 It looks very far from the standards one would expect from a manufacturing facility.
00:19 And here's our file.
00:22 Patients who injected medication from that pharmacy told a Four Corners investigation
00:26 they believed it caused side effects and the pharmacist who allegedly made it is on the
00:31 run.
00:33 Now all compounding pharmacists in Australia will be banned from making replica versions
00:37 of drugs like a Zempik amid public safety concerns.
00:41 We're very much concerned that patients are at risk. We don't know what's in these products.
00:46 We don't know the conditions under which they're manufactured and put into the injection.
00:51 Some operators were exploiting a loophole which allows pharmacists to make a drug that's
00:55 in shortage to produce the weight loss medication en masse.
00:59 And I see this frankly as an abuse of what is designed to be a one off circumstance to
01:05 get around frankly the very strict regulations we have around manufacturing of medicines.
01:10 Telehealth weight loss company Eucalyptus has 20,000 patients on compounded semaglutide.
01:16 It says it only uses reputable pharmacies and has done independent testing.
01:21 All of our data has shown that patients are getting safe and effective treatment that's
01:24 equivalent to the commercial product.
01:26 Doctors groups say the ban will stretch already limited stocks but is needed.
01:31 We fully support the banning of large scale compounding of a Zempik. We know that it's
01:38 caused harm and this is big business, this is for profit, this isn't for patients.
01:44 Patients have until October to talk to their GP to find an alternative.
01:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]