Hospitals in two Dutch cities - Deventer and Dordrecht - have issued a warning about the illegal trade in weight loss drugs after two of their patients fell into a coma after injecting fake weight loss drugs purchased online, the newspaper “Algemeen Dagblad“ reports, quoted by BTA.
A 54-year-old man from Deventer had been prescribed weight loss injection pens by a private clinic. Due to the high costs, he switched to an online provider and used injections with the substance semaglutide without problems for several months. At one point, he received a delivery of other injection pens, the label and leaflet of which were in English, and the dose could be increased more and more. However, the pens did not contain weight loss medication, but insulin, which lowers blood sugar levels. The man fell into a coma and was admitted to hospital with hypothermia and extremely low blood sugar.
Something similar happened to a 47-year-old woman from Dordrecht. She also wanted to lose weight, but her GP did not prescribe her medication. Through an acquaintance, she obtained illegal injection pens with inscriptions in German and Bulgarian. In this case, too, it was insulin, not weight loss medication. She also fell into a coma and ended up in hospital.
Both patients were saved, the newspaper notes.
Doctors and pharmacists from various hospitals in the Netherlands are sounding the alarm in the “Dutch Journal of Medicine“. They warn that the danger lies not in prescribed weight loss drugs, but in counterfeit products whose content is unknown.
“People sometimes think that they will find a cheaper or faster alternative on the Internet, but they do not know what they are actually injecting themselves with. What looks like a reliable medicine may in fact be counterfeit and life-threatening“, says Dr. Manon Slob from the Deventer Hospital.
Dr. Suzanne Scholl-Gellock from the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Dordrecht draws attention to the symptoms associated with low blood sugar. “Symptoms such as sweating, trembling, nausea, confusion, drowsiness or loss of consciousness can indicate a serious problem,“ she says.
The Health and Youth Care Inspectorate is investigating websites that offer medicines. There are websites that often seem trustworthy but are not, and sellers illegally use the logos of government institutions. The authorities have taken steps to close dozens of such websites. The inspectorate discovers them thanks to reports from doctors and other health professionals. The number of reports has been growing for years: in 2023, 100 were received, in 2024 - 200, and last year - 260.