{"id":220349,"date":"2025-10-17T18:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220349\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:11:10","slug":"warning-after-king-kong-of-weight-loss-jabs-found-being-sold-illegally-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220349\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning after \u2018King Kong\u2019 of weight-loss jabs found being sold illegally on social media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fake versions of highly sought-after weight-loss jabs<\/a> are being sold illegally on social media<\/a>, an investigation<\/a> has found.<\/p>\n

Retatrutide, seen as the \u2018King Kong\u2019 of weight-loss drugs<\/a>, works twice as fast as existing drugs<\/a> to help people lose weight, according to early studies.<\/p>\n

The drug is being developed by Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical giant behind Mounjaro, but Retatrutide is still in clinical trials<\/a> and has not yet been licensed for use anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

Yet on major social platforms such as Facebook and TikTok, people are selling weight-loss injections they claim are Retatrutide.<\/p>\n

\"Weight<\/p>\n

Weight loss jabs are being illegally sold on social media platforms, an investigation has found (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

An investigation by Channel 4 News<\/a> exposed how easily an undercover reporter was able to buy and collect a fake version of the drug.<\/p>\n

When pushed by the reporter, the seller falsely claimed the injections were obtained from a pharmacy and are available on the NHS. The reporter was also given \u201cconflicting\u201d instructions about how many times she should use the jabs per week.<\/p>\n

The investigation found that two companies were selling fake or illicit versions of weight-loss<\/a> drugs. Eli Lilly said it is taking action against the companies. The Independent has contacted both for comment.<\/p>\n

\"Aisleyne<\/p>\n

Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace said she was in \u2018torture\u2019 after taking fake weight-loss jab (Getty)<\/p>\n

Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, a former Big Brother housemate, said she lost vision in one eye after she took a copy of a weight-loss drug she bought on TikTok.<\/p>\n

When she received her package containing the jabs, she said it had \u201cno guidance, no instructions\u201d.<\/p>\n

She told Channel 4: \u201cThere were bags of vomit just lined up by my bed. I couldn\u2019t make it to the toilet. It was just literally the worst time of my life physically. My vision had gone in one eye. I thought, that\u2019s it. I\u2019m either gonna die or I\u2019m gonna be blind. It was just torture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sales<\/p>\n

Sales of weight-loss jabs Mounjaro and Wegovy reached 2.5 million in July this year (PA)<\/p>\n

When shown one of the illegal jab packages, Dr Nancy Allen, an NHS GP who prescribes licensed weight-loss medications, said she had never seen it before, and expressed \u201cserious concerns\u201d about patient safety.<\/p>\n

Sales of fat-fighting jabs Mounjaro and Wegovy<\/a> reached 2.5 million in July, seven times more than the same period last year, according to figures seen by The Telegraph.<\/p>\n

The Ozempic-style drugs<\/a> are set to be made widely available on the NHS<\/a> under plans drafted by Wes Streeting<\/a>, but they are currently rare on a free prescription and many people are choosing to go private.<\/p>\n

The popularity of the jabs has soared over the past year as they are increasingly being used to tackle obesity. Around 4 per cent of households in the UK currently use them.<\/p>\n

Following the investigation, both TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, removed the content.<\/p>\n

Meta added that it is \u201cconstantly working to get better at detection\u201d.<\/p>\n

TikTok has also banned associated hashtags and search suggestions, and pointed to its community guidelines, which it said \u201care clear that we don’t allow trading, marketing, or providing access to regulated, prohibited, or high-risk goods and services\u201d. It added: \u201cThis includes regulated substances such as products marketed for weight loss or muscle gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

A statement from Eli Lilly said: \u201cRetatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly\u2019s clinical trials. Anyone purporting to sell Retatrutide for human use is breaking the law, and no one should consider taking anything claiming to be retatrutide outside of a Lilly-sponsored clinical trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

The programme, called Inside the black market for illegal weight-loss jabs, aired on Channel 4 News on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fake versions of highly sought-after weight-loss jabs are being sold illegally on social media, an investigation has found.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[106042,49,48,9949,2096,84,106044,377,106041,1942,106043,1059,953,13600],"class_list":{"0":"post-220349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-aisleyne-horgan-wallace","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-eli-lilly","12":"tag-facebook","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-jabs","15":"tag-medication","16":"tag-retatrutide","17":"tag-social-media","18":"tag-the-investigation","19":"tag-tiktok","20":"tag-weight-loss","21":"tag-weight-loss-drug"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}