The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has seized large amounts of packaging and manufacturing equipment, as well as £20,000 in cash linked to medicines trafficking. 

Officers from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) say that they have dismantled a major illicit manufacturing facility, making and distributing unlicensed weight-loss jabs, during a raid on a warehouse in Northampton.

This is part of the continued problem with illegal weight-loss medicines. 

In early October, the MHRA, in partnership with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), jointly released an updated enforcement notice to reiterate the rules around the advertising of prescription-only medicines used for weight management. 

This follows a joint enforcement notice, which was issued towards the end of April, making clear that adverts for named prescription-only medicines for weight management are prohibited, and in August, with a letter from Roz Gittins, the chief pharmacy officer at the GPhC, to pharmacists, which raised concerns about a number of patient safety risks.

During the search of the first illicit production facility for weight-loss medicine discovered in the UK, officers seized tens of thousands of empty weight-loss pens ready to be filled, raw chemical ingredients, and more than 2,000 unlicensed retatrutide and tirzepatide pens awaiting dispatch to customers. 

Untested, unauthorised, and potentially deadly

“Taking out the first illicit weight-loss medicine manufacturing facility found in the UK is a landmark result for the MHRA and a major blow to the illegal trade,” said Andy Morling, head of the MHRA’s Criminal Enforcement Unit. 

“These products are untested, unauthorised, and potentially deadly. By taking this organised criminal network out of operation and stopping tens of thousands of potentially fatal products from entering circulation, we’ve prevented a serious risk to public health,” he continued. 

Along with large amounts of sophisticated packaging and manufacturing equipment, officers recovered approximately £20,000 in cash suspected to be linked to medicines trafficking. The site, on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Northampton, is believed to have been used for the large-scale manufacture, packaging, and distribution of unlicensed weight-loss products to customers. 

The Criminal Enforcement Unit is the MHRA’s in-house law enforcement function, leading the agency’s response to medicines crime.