Two arrested in connection with seizure of 12,000 doses of unlicensed weight-loss drugs

A raid on a country estate has led to the two arrests and the UK medicines watchdog's largest ever seizure of unlicensed weight-loss drugs.

Officers from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Criminal Enforcement Unit (CEU) recovered around 12,000 doses of unlicensed weight-loss medicines following the raid near Northampton.

The MHRA said this was its largest ever seizure of unlicensed weight-loss medicines.

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The agency believes that the Northamptonshire estate was being used to manufacture, assemble, and distribute unlicensed weight-loss drugs at scale, including retatrutide, tirzepatide, and peptide products.

Officers also seized substantial quantities of packaging materials and what are believed to be pharmaceutical substances used in the illicit manufacture of the products, the MHRA said.

The operation, carried out on Thursday night, also led to the arrest of two 29-year-old men on suspicion of offences under the Human Regulations 2012, the MHRA said.

The head of the MHRA’s CEU, Andy Morling, said the ‘hugely successful’ operation demonstrated the agency’s ‘unwavering commitment to ensuring there is no hiding place for those who cynically put the public’s health at risk for profit’.

‘Medicines regulation isn’t discretionary - it exists to protect people,’ he added.

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‘That’s why we continue to target the traffickers who seek to bypass that protection – taking down the infrastructure that supports them and creating a hostile environment for their exploitative and harmful trade.’

He said he was confident that the dismantling of this production facility will have prevented ‘significant public harm’ and thanked Northamptonshire Police for its support during the operation.

Over recent months, the agency’s CEU has carried out a series of raids targeting the illegal supply of weight-loss medicines.

In February, almost 2,000 doses of unauthorised weight-loss drugs were seized following raids on two properties in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.

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Another major manufacturing facility in Northampton was dismantled in October, where MHRA officers seized 2,000 unlicensed pens ready for dispatch, tens of thousands of empty pens intended for filling, raw chemical ingredients, sophisticated manufacturing equipment, and around £20,000 in cash believed to be linked to illegal medicines trafficking.

In The Pharmacist’s Podcast, Mr Morling explains how these operations are uncovered and shut down, and discusses the risk posed to patients who obtain medicines outside regulated channels.