An Israeli cybersecurity firm has taken down more than 250 websites selling fake versions of popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs in the GLP-1 class, representing more than 15% of the 1 655 websites BrandShield reported in 2023 for peddling counterfeit hormone-related drugs, central nervous system medicines and cancer treatments, it said.
BrandShield CEO Yoav Keren said that out of the 279 pharmacy websites they closed in 2023 for selling drugs intended to treat metabolic conditions, more than 90% were related to GLP-1 medicines.
Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound are all GLP-1s, and cases of harm linked to fake versions of these have been reported in at least nine countries, including Belgium, Britain, Switzerland and the US.
Websites selling counterfeit GLP-1s were less common in 2022 when the company identified 34 such sites to be closed. However, it was not targeting all of the GLP-1 drugs that year – as it did in 2023, Keren told Reuters.
Last year BrandShield took down 3 968 listings on social media platforms for fake drugs in all categories, almost 60% of which were found on Facebook. It removed more than 6 900 illegal drug listings across social media platforms and marketplaces in total, including 992 marketplaces in India, 544 in Indonesia, 364 in China and 114 in Brazil.
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