{"id":929555,"date":"2026-10-15T22:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T22:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929555\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T22:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T22:28:09","slug":"2m-fake-weight-loss-pens-found-in-filthy-birmingham-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929555\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a32m fake weight-loss pens found in &#8216;filthy&#8217; Birmingham hub"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">More than 12,000 counterfeit weight-loss pens, worth an estimated \u00a32m, have been seized in a raid on an industrial unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The fake goods were found at a &#8220;filthy warehouse&#8221; on an estate in Birmingham, according to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There is no guarantee of what they contain or whether they have been contaminated with harmful substances,&#8221; said the agency. . <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Packaging for about 30,000 extra products was also discovered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The MHRA said the pens contained fake versions of the drugs retatrutide and tirzepatide, medicines used for weight loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A BBC investigation previously found vials purporting to be &#8220;reta&#8221; as it&#8217;s become known, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwyz7lrwqdyo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">were being sold in the UK in gyms, nail and beauty salons, hairdressers, on social media<\/a> and even by flower sellers on the street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 12,000 counterfeit weight-loss pens, worth an estimated \u00a32m, have been seized in a raid on an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490],"class_list":["post-929555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}