Uncovering the Ozempic and Mounjaro black market | Four Corners

OIC OIC OIC a radical change Injectable weight loss medications are in fashion. The buzz around drugs like AIC is sweeping the world. The weight loss drug

market

could reach $100 billion in the next 8 years. They could become the highest-grossing drugs of all time. These new medications. clearly they were going to be popular, it probably got a little too exciting. I don't care about my face, just a little bit, give me that injection, skinny. WI, many people, this is their last option, have tried healthy eating. I tried to exercise and it just doesn't work because it's not that simple skin.

There is no way pharmaceutical companies can meet the growing demand. We have zero zic stock at 1.5 million. It is not available at all. The supply crisis has created an opportunity for unscrupulous operators. to move when there is a lucrative

market

anywhere they go to get jeans and they are flooding doctors around the world with advertisements for drug replicas, these are the faxes we get advertising there, zic, oh yeah, that's little reliable, that is totally unacceptable so they are trying to pass themselves off as authentic they only know that patients are neglected and patients are at risk we can't tell you if they work we can't tell you if they are safe and here is our file it looks like a of the ice packs has exploded leads for the love of God don't inject anything we don't know what that is the team of forensic experts has descended on the house in western Sydney looking for evidence Four Corners uncovers the Local scam sending suspicious drugs because she he was on our waiting list and sent the script.

Hi I'm Alex. This is the front line of an unprecedented drug shortage. Patients look everywhere for a zenic. They just call Pharmacy after Pharmacy, after Pharmacy. They're just waiting and if you have stock it's like no one has ordered the asmic yet from Sigma, not today, no hey, I'm Alex from Harer Pharmacy. I'm going to put our usual Asic on back order, pharmacists are looking for stock of the Blockbuster doctor trying to meet customer demand. Do you know when he will return? Thank you so much. Well, goodbye, don't come back. Well, okay, if you could ask for anything you wanted.

How much do you think you would ask for? You know you could sell, it would completely fill all of our refrigerators, because that's the limit, obviously, it's also a line of refrigerators, but oh, look, it's thousands and how fast could you sell that. In a few days we had the Stu down, it's not just a zic. Customers are looking for another drug that promises even more weight loss. Munaro launched in Australia last year and cost up to $700 a month. It started to run out within weeks. I'm out of stock for 2 days and yes, the others don't have anything available.

We will use what we have. Yes, in Australia both AIC and munaro are only approved to treat diabetes, but doctors can use their own judgment to prescribe the drugs to patients who want to lose weight, so I think we have about 20 units left and I just have to check to everyone on the waiting list. Until we get out, which won't be long. Yes of course. I have been in pharmacy for over 30 years. I had never seen anything like it. This has been a problem for over a year now and it's not that there hasn't been stock, it's just that usage and demand has been growing over time, and yeah, I don't see that slowing down anytime soon these days, it's the talk of Tik Tock.

Have you heard about this? Are you in it? I have questions today is the day of the injection you better work where the medicine is we already gave me the needle it's like I don't feel like eating success stories on social media have driven demand around the world Lord, if I you let yourself lose weight one more time, I promise I won't ruin it. Amen OIC OIC OIC OIC now there is OIC, what is AIC? Okay, so AIC is a diabetes drug, that's why it's called semaglutide and it's known as GLP1 Agonist, so what is that?

It is one of our gut hormones that is released naturally when we eat, and when injected in much higher doses than our body would normally have, it slows down gastric emptying, so you feel full, but one of the main ways in which What works is by talking to our brain and regulating appetite control and the urge to eat. GP1 acts physiologically in the intestine and tells the brain to say: eat less. satisfied with less, you don't need as much, eh, people will tell me now I understand how people can just leave the plate. The weight loss potential of a zenic was reported in a landmark study led by John Wilding and funded by the pharmaceutical company Novo.

What Nordisk found was that people treated with sagid lost about 15% of their body weight, about 15 kilos, while people who had just received the sham injections and still received dietary advice only lost about 2 and a half kilos. of weight, which If everything I do is not enough, Monjaro created even more buzz and people who took mjo lost up to 25 pounds, so it appears to be, based on the trials we have seen so far, that it is more effective than Stide to lose weight. We're starting to get into the range of weight loss that is seen after some forms of bariatric surgery, and that's something we've never seen before with weight loss medications, so I think that was very exciting.

I feel like a normal person. Instead of a fat person who is ignored or shamed for all that, I actually feel like I'm like, you know, when you lose weight. I experienced being seen, which was a really nice change. They didn't ignore me because it was just that. fat person walking down the street weighed 115.5 kilos I tried the gym I had tried eating healthy I had tried absolutely everything I went to my doctor he told me that you should try a zenic and so I did and I was on a zenic for only more than 12 months and I lost 30 kilos, then the shortage came and then the game was over, yes, then I recovered everything that happened, um, so good, this because there was no asmp.

I didn't, I couldn't keep losing weight and then I was taking steroids for my problems and that's like the weight game so yeah sad yeah studies show that most people gain back the weight they lost when they stop of taking the medications. I went from being really big to a size 14 and I was like, this is how people must feel, it was amazing and then I went back up and that was nice for a while. Yes, Lauren Ash had hope again when Monjaro arrived in Australia and as soon as I found out. I wanted to try it because I heard that it is better than a Zenic and they assured me that it was not going to be missed, that things were going to be incredible and that it was going to be long term, so it was really exciting, so this is my Monaro, my weekly dose, so it comes with a very large list.

Did you ever open it in R the first time I did it? Because I think you should, if you're going to take a medication, you should read all those things and the things you shouldn't, it's huge, okay, so this has the list of side effects and everything, check with your doctor if yes, Children, should not take it during pregnancy and breastfeeding, should not take it. These medications can have serious side effects, dehydration. pancreatitis reactions IC G bladder yes, mhm, so your doctor reviewed absolutely all of this yes, yes, it's quite a long list, yes, some people vomit, some people feel a little funny in their stomach, some people may have diarrhea, others They may not have anything wrong. side effects my side effect was I had a two day migraine the first time I took a zic and I don't suffer from migraines and that was horrible but after that it was fine it just depended on the person there is no reliable data on how Many Australians like Lauren are taking these medications to lose weight.

She started a support group on Facebook to find other people like her. It quickly grew to 50,000 members and it's not the only one I see, many people who don't tell anyone they are drinking. a zek or Monaro um for shame for judgment people just don't get it, they say why why are you in that you don't need to be in that or why don't you put down that burger and go for a walk it's exhausting people just don't want to have to talk. they just want to be able to move on so you know group you can talk about it because we understand we met Lauren for the first time in November last year Right before the last shortage hit, I was tired of the shame and stigma they experienced many members of his group, so he decided to share his trip in video diaries from week seven in Monjaro.

I thought I would check it out, so currently I have lost 6 kilos. which is amazing, so I feel very positive and it's really good to now have more energy to play with my children. Week eight in manaro. I presented my script to the chemist and they told me there is a short term shortage so I hope that means I won't miss it for too long trying not to feel stress because this happened with the Zen look and I ended up regaining all the weight I lost, so it wasn't great, group people. They are also starting to panic, taking it one day at a time and I hope the shortage ends soon.

Week 11 in Monaro. I'm just trying to get through it as best I can, really and truly without thinking about what I'm going to do once. U. I checked all my vials. Lauren became increasingly worried as Munaro became almost impossible to find. Eli Lily blamed a larger than expected demand update on my trip with Monjaro, so things have been a bit bad, honestly there weren't any available. I have had to do it. I completely stretched my dosage by keeping it very low. I haven't lost weight. I probably gained a pound, which is really frustrating because I was so excited to know that losing weight would make me a better version of myself.

All of that, so it's been. Really tough people are desperate and will do what they can because most of them have been taking OIC or Monaro or whatever they've been taking before and they know it works and they just want to continue to be able to do what they do. pharmacists can do. Making your own versions of medications in times of scarcity is called compounding and more and more people are relying on it for weight loss medications. There are about half a dozen established compounding pharmacies manufacturing their own versions of AIC and munaro in Australia, the problem we became.

What they knew was essentially the scale of the compounding, so compounding semaglutide products on a very large scale is now starting to look like a pharmaceutical company, but they are doing it without any of the controls and regulations that a large pharmaceutical company would. need, I mean. smartide is a pretty complicated molecule, it has to be mixed in the right way for it to be safe to inject and my concern is if people are trying to do this even if it is in an accredited laboratory that is actually used to making drugs that are not the same as the approved process, which is what obtains the license for the drug.

The Juniper Weight Reset Program takes a medical approach to weight loss. Telly's big health providers like Juniper saw a market opportunity in weight-loss drugs when the brand-name drugs they started sold out. Offering compounded versions makes patients feel fuller longer shortly after the Therapeutic Goods Administration issued a safety alert on compounded weight-loss drugs. The most important message is that the TGA has not evaluated these medicines and we cannot tell you exactly what they are. I can't tell you if they work, we can't tell you if they're safe, and we don't monitor the quality of these medications at all.

I think it's been a little confusing. There are a lot of things that keep coming up with the TGA. that we post in our group so people can see it and make their own informed decisions about it. Many in Lauren's Facebook community rely on compounded versions of the medications. We definitely put him in the group as a viable option, um, moving forward. but you only go to a reputable pharmacy, don't go to these scams that appear in an ad on Facebook or you get an email, yes, reputable, hello how are you? I'm fine, how are you doing?

I'm fine, Kate is one of the moderators helping Lauren manage the ever-expanding Facebook group, they are often looking for dodgy suppliers. I've seen quite a few posts about being like dodgy scams. I've seen some with similar emails, but also faxes and advertisements. On Facebook too, unfortunately, there are a lot of people trying to make money from a really bad situation. People, yes, receive faxes from random chemicals. The people I know in the group have paid money and nothing ever comes. so they can't contact the chemists, they just don't care, they just want to make money and they do it to anyone.

Look, I think there's always an open door for people to scam. people who want to lose weight havebeen easily scammed for decades, that will continue. We are about to delve into a pharmaceutical scam that has been operating simply, it is a marketing campaign targeting doctors and patients across the country. We headed to the northeast coast of Tasmania after receiving a tip that dubious weight loss drugs ended up here and made some people sick. I guess we've heard about Zic in the last few months, but then some people in town. When we are unable to supply them with the genuine product we have had, I have heard feedback that they were able to get it elsewhere online.

That sort of thing, the only pharmacy in the town of St Helens has had problems. to keep up with the demand for brand name medicines, so what is the stock at the moment? We can come and take a look. Current stock levels haven't been very good lately, so just looking at one of our wholesalers here, we have zero. zic stocks at the 1.5 million and the 3 million have limited supplies and how long has this been going on? um it's been like this since about November before that there wasn't even limited supplies there weren't any available at all. nothing good good morning o Medical Center last year the local GP clinic started receiving faxes offering a solution to the acid shortage so these are the faxes we would receive from the compounding pharmaceutical companies.

It's a much more aggressive type of advertising approach than what we have. I typically see compounding in pharmacies, so we initially ignored them until we had patients who were actually much more interested in using compounded medications. Some doctors here began prescribing the compounded semaglutide promoted in the faxes. I talk about the advantages and disadvantages of using semaglutide. The patients lost 20 kilos and that was really good. They appear to have the usual side effects that would be expected from semaglutide. When did you start thinking that something might not be right? What was the first warning sign? We had a patient who came. with an unusual problem he had a sensory neuropathy problem with the nerves in the periphery of his body, so in his hands and feet it was so severe that the patient ended up in the hospital, the liquid that the patient injected had a red color unusual bright.

The color label said it contained semaglutide, vitamin B12 and alantin, but tests revealed that the patient had high levels of another vitamin B6. It turned out that he had a very high vitamin level in his blood and that was strange and they were not taking anything that would increase the level of that vitamin except the semaglutide from the compounding pharmacy, we contact all of our patients who are using the semag tide compound and we essentially told them I can't be sure what's in this medication so my advice is to stop doing it. and how worrying it was that for you as a doctor it was a real shock that our patients trust us and we trust that the people who supply our medicines provide something of quality and standard that we can trust, so it was very important. of doubts in our heads about where this is coming from and what else may or may not be there and there was another location with an unusual side effect that I just met with a patient who was taking this compounded weight loss medication that she is told to very Few people were taking the medication, so he doesn't want to appear on camera or talk about it publicly.

Initially she had severe diarrhea and vomiting, then her mouth wouldn't stop bleeding, she stopped taking the medication, but the compounding pharmacy kept trying. to sell her more, she responded this way, so the pharmacy was offering patients more over-the-counter medications, that's what it would look like when I looked at the text messages that the patient showed me, yes, so what we can see, the Doctors were unable to trace the pharmacist who manufactured the medications, we tried to contact them after noticing this problem with the vitamin and did not receive any response from them last December. Dr Fox made a formal report to the TGA and the following month he was asked to submit a complaint for the tests but never received a response, it's interesting when I have the conversation with the TGA, they are going well, we are not really responsible for administering the compounded pharmaceuticals and the pharmacy board says we're not actually monitoring each individual drug, so it seems like there's a real gap in the way we look after these drugs and how they're administered and make sure they're produced safely.

We wanted to know more about who was selling the red vials so we placed an order and I'm going to hit send and see how fast they respond, they responded asking how much we wanted, they sent an invoice for the semaglutide, there is a pay now button, $150 plus $ 4.95 shipping, but at this point we haven't even shipped a script. but they are happy to take our money. Corners has spoken to dozens of doctors, GP clinics and specialists across the country who have been bombarded with compounding faxes and emails. They appear to be from different compounding pharmacies, but there are striking similarities. gp1 solutions MIM science prices dosage guides are the same many falsely claim to be accredited by industry bodies even repeat spelling mistakes alliance pharmacy combination there is never a different phone number or physical address they share fax numbers and there is only one Gmail contact no The pharmacy uses Gmail, it's not really professional, the fact that you can't find their phone number, I mean that's already a red flag, there is a pharmacy name that keeps showing up in the faxes is Total Compounding.

Pharmaceuticals or TCP again, TCP Total Compounding is dragging my name. Through the mud this pharmacy on Sydney's north shore has been confused with TCP so they call us the compounding pharmacy of Australia which is why tcpa is so short and everyone calls themselves TCP so when you search on Google our pharmacy appears first, good afternoon, it shows the compounding pharmacy, Adam speaks. Congratulations. We started receiving these phone calls about 2 years ago. It was very strange that sometimes we were receiving 20 a day and it was really affecting the operations of our regular pharmacy. They kept talking about weight loss injections and I thought no.

We don't even do that, angry patients accused him of taking their money but not sending the medications, others who did receive their medications were worried about what they were sent and then when a patient said no, I have something in my hand I thought oh wow, now this is going to another level, it's really dangerous because they have something that they are going to inject and I was trying to explain myself and I said can you Send pictures? Photos show red vials. Like those sent to Tasmania, my brain says it's not sterile at all, even because of the way it was presented to the patient.

I said don't inject that because it's not sterile, so we don't know what it is. actually there, let alone the U, if it is the medicine and then how it was made. My team and the team and so many compounding pharmacies were highly trained and highly skilled. I said these Cowboys expect the worst. Adam Reinhardt says he reported what he knew. the Pharmacy Council of New South Wales, the pharmacy board and the police, but it made no difference, the entire composition of Pharmaceuticals were able to continue selling the red vials the way they set up the operation, just some of the intricate details of the composition would understand how to do it.

All the information led me to the fact that someone in the composites world is a part of this. We have discovered that faxes and red vials are at the center of an international pharmaceutical scandal. Evidence from customers across the United States shows that weight loss drugs are being exported illegally. Australia, with American doctors and nurses being attacked with faxes like we saw in Tasmania, the scheme has been operating under the fake pharmacy name, Total Compounding Pharmaceuticals or TCP, here in the United States, it is extremely popular right now, everyone They want to do the same. weight loss injections How widely do you think these faxes and emails are reaching in the United States?

Oh, I'm sure they're getting everywhere. I just don't know how they're figuring out where to send them to this nurse practitioner in Alabama. ordered from Total Compounding Pharmaceuticals for one of her patients, it probably took two weeks to get here, so that was like the first red flag. I knew the moment it arrived that I wasn't going to give it to anyone, that I was going to walk right in. the removal um because number one it wasn't chilled um and then I realized where it was shipped from and it was from Australia and I was surprised that we found a litany of complaints from American customers about total pharmaceutical compounds that list an address on their website.

It seems like their company is in Wyoming, United States, but that is not the case, they are actually located in Australia. I received a product from Australia, it was hot and unusable. I lost $800. Just keep in mind that Total Compounding Pharmaceuticals is not in the US and is probably not regulated in any way, Total Compounding Pharmaceuticals is a total scam. I still get emails to this day from Total Compounding Pharmaceuticals, wanting me to order more medications from them, but of course I'm not crazy enough to do something like that. Our order had not arrived yet. but my bank statement revealed another biopharmacy name, unlike TCP, it was once registered as a real pharmacy in Australia, so this is an address linked to the company we are interested in.

The tenants next door told us that there was actually a compounding pharmacy. here, but they suddenly disappeared a few years ago and left behind a lot of equipment, including a pill press. They also said there are many unopened men that have been here for years. There are a lot of different company names linked to this address so it looks like We were definitely here, the tenants next door also told us there were people showing up at the tire store with scripts saying they were trying to fill them and they sent them here and this is where there was actually a big compounding pharmacy, but they haven't been seen in years and the order we placed finally arrived so this is the package we were waiting for.

We're going to have to open it up and see what's really inside. There are so many layers of Plastic stinks, it smells very strong like chemicals or plastic or something wet and here is our vial of red liquid. It looks like one of the ipcs has exploded, so there's weird stuff everywhere. There were syringes and instructions on how much to inject even though I never sent a script that says it was posted from the Center Queen Street Mall Brisbane Queensland dispatch complex to WBA so we really have no idea where it actually came from and then a clue came review from a disgruntled American customer who wanted a refund so PayPal I told him to return the medicine to the seller at a residential address in Sydney so no answer at the door but I spoke to all the neighbors around the house and They all told me the same thing, that there is a constant flow of deliveries.

As trucks appear at the house returning to the driveway and unloading large boxes, sometimes things on pallets, into the garage and keeping them to themselves and the blinds often closed, we discover that the owner of the house is New South Wales Registered Pharmacist Emad Azar. His license states that he is not permitted to prepare medications or have a financial interest in any compounding pharmacy. His involvement in the weight loss drug operation is hidden through a complex web of fake pharmacy names. Would you be surprised to know that we have found a registered Australian? pharmacist who illegally combines weight loss drugs and sells them without a prescription to Australians and people overseas.

We are investigating a number of organizations that we have information about that are doing things that are outside the legal exemptions in this area. When can that stop? Because it's still happening today. We are moving as quickly as we can to make the relevant changes when there is a perceived lucrative market anywhere they go to get jeans, except the. The problem is that right now with capitalization there really isn't enough controls and oversight, and until we get that, we're going to continue to see these Cowboys and unfortunately what it does is put pressure on the guys who are really doing it. eh, things as they should, in February the TGA took action against the established compounding industry with a proposal to prevent them from preparing replicas of weight loss drugs.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration will take action to prohibit compounding pharmacists from manufacturing their own versions of injectable weight-loss drugs. like a zembic and mount jaro.I'm joined by health reporter Elise Worington. The TGA is concerned that this is happening on such a wide scale that it could be a risk to public health and safety, so it has put people in a state of confusion. This is because people who take these medications are very dependent on them, if they stop taking them, studies show that people regain weight immediately if that is the reason they take them, and if they take them for diabetes, they should continue with that. medicines too, so of course people don't choose to take compounded medicines, they would rather have the brand name, but that's just not regularly available in good supply in Australia at the moment.

Is this an admission that there has been a failure in Regulation that has led to this point. I think this is how regulation works by recognizing that there is activity that is not consistent with the safety of the community and taking steps to address it. The total composition. Pharmaceuticals have been able to operate for years without TGA control first. We received reports about the scam at least 5 months ago last week, we shared the findings of our inv investigation with them. 48 hours later, they executed a search warrant at the home of Emad A. A team of forensic experts arrived at the home in Weston Sydney searching for evidence.

The owners of this house have not been seen for days and the letters we left requesting comments are still by the front door, inside the property, investigators found vials of red liquid that they confiscated for testing, there were also packaging and documents of the TGA. You say your investigations are ongoing, it's a natural progression, isn't it? because people are desperate for a drug, there is a market that someone is going to try and in that market, I think it is a total failure of the system, we really need to solve this problem, Dr. Katherine. Williams despairs at the fight for his patients' access to weight-loss medications.

I guess that's what I think. I would really like to convey that this is an emergency for some people. Good morning, Metabolic Health Service. Wilmer speaks. Okay, of course, so just name her, please. Nepan Family Metabolic Health Service in Western Sydney treats patients with complex health problems related to obesity. The cost crisis. and the availability of weight loss medications is acutely felt here, being an OBD specialist is a real challenge for me as a doctor because I know what will work but I can't always access what will work and I see people suffering from all the days and people. that are really sick and the hoops that we have to jump through to get the medications to those people that will have a massive effect and we can't provide that we know that when you lose weight you also lose a certain amount of muscle mass, Dr.

Williams directs the multidisciplinary program at Nepan hospital. Some patients have to wait years to get a place here. It is important to consume protein foods while losing weight, but there is no guarantee that you can access medications like OIC and wjo to help. they lose weight, so with the cost, obviously something like $400 a month won't be in my budget to be able to afford it, but if it was in my budget I would definitely try it. The day I think everyone in this group has medical indications for these medications, so if they choose that that is the right therapy for them, then they have the right to access them and I wish they had access to those medications and what.

Have been the challenges with these medications for you as a service. The biggest one has been the fact that the user pays, so our patients do not have the financial ability to pay for these medications. As a general rule, we are creating health inequity. like to get over it, it's not just the cost, even those who start taking the medications can't be sure they can stay on them, so please understand that you have had some problems accessing AIC therapy and as expected. When you come off these medications, you gain some weight back despite your best efforts and you are eating well, it is a bit annoying, it comes and then goes, and then you get confused between being obese or overweight. no it's not something it's not good I wish we had it for people like me so we don't run out like every time you go you get what the doctor wants you to get and it will help us because without that your mental health starts to suffer too. worry and panic and all that until the pharmaceutical companies can improve the supply of brand-name drugs.

There is an opportunity for unscrupulous players to fill the void. I don't think anyone knew this was going to happen, um, but I guess. In hindsight it's pretty obvious so far that regulators are playing catch up leaving consumers exposed, don't resort to these scams that appear in an ad on Facebook or get an email, people are desperate because they just want to be able to be the better versions. on our own we just want to be able to access these medications and there's no reason for Judgment, they're life changing, they're life changing medications so yeah.