Health inspectors ban webshop from selling weight loss drugs

Health inspectors have banned a website from selling unlicensed weight loss drugs that it advertised on social media.

De Peptidekoning sold two medicines prescribed to treat diabetes, semaglutide and tirzepatide, and a third, retatrutide, which is an experimental drug that has not been licensed in any country.

The Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) ordered the owners of the website to stop selling all three substances and warned patients not to risk their health with experimental treatments.

It said De Peptidekoning, which trades through several websites including puritybase.com, did not have a license to sell the medicines. “They have not adequately ensured that the medicines meet standards for quality, safety and effectiveness,” the IGJ said.

“The way in which the medicines were offered for sale does not give enough reassurances, which creates risks for public health.”

RTL Nieuws reported that unauthorised traders were profiting from a black market in slimming treatments for people who were not prescribed medicines such as Ozempic, which are only available in the Netherlands to treat diabetes.

Marloes Dankers, of the Utrecht-based Dutch Institute for the Rational Use of Medicine, an advisory body set up by doctors and pharmacists, said: “People are making guinea-pigs of themselves.

“These medicines are still being researched and we don’t know what exactly the risks are. That’s the reason for doing the research.”

Eli Lilly, the American manufacturer developing retratrutide, also urged people not to buy the drug online.

“What is being sold on the black market is not a medicine, it has not been approved or verified in any way and it is not worth the risk,” the company said.