The number of illegal or fake weight loss drugs seized by the medicines watchdog this month is almost five times that seized in all of last year, new figures show.
On Thursday, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) issued an “urgent warning” about online advertisements making “spurious claims” about illegal or falsified medicines, many of which purport to be endorsed by the regulator.
The HPRA said it seized 7,815 fake or illegal weight-loss drugs between May 1st and 28th. This compares to 1,582 in all of 2024.
Sites and social media posts are using the HPRA logo to claim the featured products are “endorsed” by it, the body said. However, the HPRA is an independent regulator, so it does not endorse any medication.
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“The unacceptable use of the HPRA logo and name in this way is clearly designed to deceive and mislead consumers,” the regulator said.
[ Rise in seizure of illegal muscle-boosting and weight-loss drugsOpens in new window ]
It said that in May alone, there has been a surge in misleading website activity. The websites, which are hosted outside of Ireland by the e-commerce platform Shopify, are being directly promoted to consumers via fake Facebook profiles and ads, the HPRA said.
So far in May, 155 product listings on Shopify, 124 profiles on Facebook and 414 advertisements on Facebook have been identified making false claims, according to the HPRA.
The HPRA said it has advised Shopify and Meta, which owns Facebook, of the activity and of the public health risks associated with illegal prescription medicines and other unregulated health products sold online.
It said it has requested that they “intercede to proactively identify and remove product listings, fake profiles and adverts from their platforms”.
Grainne Power, director of compliance at the HPRA, said these products are made outside Ireland, and people are “being duped” into purchasing them.
Working with Revenue, she said, the organisation has seized a “significant number of products at point of entry to the country”. Some of these “purport to be genuine prescription medicines when in fact the products as presented do not exist as an authorised product in any market”, she said.
Ms Power said a “notable” seizure was a delivery of microneedle patches that claimed to have the active ingredients semaglutide and tirzepatide, which are used to treat obesity. The packaging featured an Irish flag and purported to be made in the State.
“In addition to references to the HPRA, there are also claims these products are endorsed nationally by charities, hospitals and individual healthcare professionals. All these claims are untrue,” said Ms Power. Microneedle patches containing semaglutide, tirzepatide or any GLP-1 type medicine are “not available as approved medical treatments”, she said.
The HPRA wants consumers to be aware that the HPRA “never endorses individual brands” or allows its logo to be used in promoting health products, she said. If online sources feature the HPRA logo or suggest endorsement by the regulator, this is “actually a clear sign” of a “dubious” seller, she said.
A spokeswoman for Meta said it removed ads reported to the company by the HPRA.
“Scammers are relentless and constantly evolving their tactics to evade detection, which is why we continue to invest in technology to improve our detection and enforcement,” she said.
Shopify has been approached for comment.
