{"id":41035,"date":"2025-04-15T04:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T09:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41035"},"modified":"2025-04-15T04:38:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T09:38:32","slug":"fda-warns-about-fake-ozempic-in-u-s-supply-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41035","title":{"rendered":"FDA warns about fake Ozempic in U.S. supply chain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The Food and Drug Administration on Monday&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/drugs\/drug-safety-and-availability\/fda-warns-consumers-not-use-counterfeit-ozempic-semaglutide-found-us-drug-supply-chain\">urged patients and doctors to check that their Ozempic prescriptions<\/a>&nbsp;are legitimate after the agency seized several hundred units of fake versions of the diabetes drug in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Novo Nordisk, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/ozempic-wegovy-weight-loss-compounded-crackdowns-rcna82405\">maker of Ozempic and the weight loss drug Wegovy<\/a>, told the FDA on April 3 that counterfeit 1-milligram injections were being distributed outside its authorized supply chain in the U.S., the agency said in a news release. That means it likely entered the market through unofficial means, like unauthorized distributors or resellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The FDA said it seized the counterfeit products \u2014 labeled with lot number PAR0362 and serial numbers starting with the first eight digits 51746517 \u2014 on April 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The agency said it\u2019s aware of six adverse event reports linked to the lot \u2014 however, none of them appear to be associated with the counterfeit product.&nbsp;The agency and Novo Nordisk are testing the fake products to identify whether they\u2019re safe. Genuine Ozempic can come with side effects, including stomach problems, so it&#8217;s not clear whether the adverse events were caused by typical use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The fake versions underscore the soaring popularity and demand for the diabetes drug Ozempic, which is often used \u201coff label\u201d for weight loss, as well as similar GLP-1 drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In December 2023, the agency said it&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/rcna130871\">seized thousands of units of fake Ozempic<\/a>&nbsp;and warned that some may still be available for purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The fake products are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/doctors-are-embracing-compounded-versions-popular-weight-loss-drugs-rcna161867\">di<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/doctors-are-embracing-compounded-versions-popular-weight-loss-drugs-rcna161867\">fferent from compounded versions of the drug<\/a>, which have also grown in popularity across the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The FDA allows compounded versions that are \u201cessentially a copy\u201d of commercially available drugs under special circumstances such as shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In February, the agency said a shortage of Ozempic and Wegovy had been resolved in the U.S., effectively ending the sale of the less expensive compounded versions of the drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/fda-warns-fake-ozempic-us-supply-chain-rcna201184\">Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Food and Drug Administration on Monday&nbsp;urged patients and doctors to check that their Ozempic prescriptions&nbsp;are legitimate after the agency seized several hundred units of fake versions of the diabetes drug in the U.S. Novo Nordisk, the&nbsp;maker of Ozempic and the weight loss drug Wegovy, told the FDA on April 3 that counterfeit 1-milligram injections [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":41036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[7710,32973,3043,25238],"class_list":["post-41035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-counterfeit","tag-diabetes-drugs","tag-fda","tag-ozempic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41037,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41035\/revisions\/41037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}