Lebanese health officials said that 11 people suffered attacks of alarmingly low blood sugar this year, and that one of them was transferred to a hospital on suspicion of using a fraudulent injection of the drug Ozambik, which is produced by Novonordisk for diabetics.
Rita Karam, an official at the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon, said that officials suspected that the injections they took were fraudulent after discovering that their doses differed from the doses of the original Ozambik injection pens.
Reuters interviews with law enforcement, anti-fraud and public health officials last month showed that a huge number of counterfeit injections had been discovered in circulation due to increased demand for Ozambic and other weight-loss drugs, including Eli Lilly’s Mongaro and Novo’s Wijovi.
Authorities have already found counterfeit Ozambik products in at least 17 countries, including Britain, Germany, Egypt and Russia.
Several countries asked pharmacies and consumers to be careful of counterfeit products because their ingredients are not clear.
Rita said that the Ministry began investigating the eleven cases, but was unable to determine the sources of the medicines or the numbers printed on their labels, which allows tracking their production history, which made it difficult to know what the patients had taken in the first place.
She added that three of them used the drug Ozambik, which is suspected to be adulterated, to control diabetes, and that four used it to control weight, while the remaining four used it for unspecified reasons.
People with diabetes need to control their blood sugar well, which can be done using a variety of medications including Ozempic.
When the blood glucose level drops sharply, they can suffer from low blood sugar, with symptoms that may include headaches or dizziness, and the symptoms can progress to loss of consciousness or seizures.
Withdrawal from markets
According to the ministry’s website, two orders related to the recall of Ozambik were issued in January 2023. Rita said that no cases of possible use of non-original Ozambik injections were reported in Lebanon last year.
Novo Nordisk said that it investigates every case of fraud it finds in its products and reports it to the local authorities, and that it has developed a guide for health care providers in the Middle East to explain how to detect counterfeit medicines.
More than a quarter of adults in Lebanon suffer from obesity, according to figures from the World Obesity Federation for 2017. Obesity is closely linked to type 2 diabetes, which is the most common form of the disease.
Data from the International Diabetes Federation showed that nearly nine percent of adults in Lebanon developed diabetes in 2021, compared to about 14 percent in the United States.
Rita Karam said that the Ministry of Health does not buy or provide Ozambik.
Insulin instead of the active ingredient
A final phase of trials showed that Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wijovi, which contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic, which is semaglutide, helps patients lose 15 percent of their weight on average.
The scramble for supplies of the weight-reducing substance led to a shortage of ozimpic in several countries, such as Britain, Germany, Belgium, and the United States.
A source familiar with anti-fraud efforts told Reuters last month that markets where sales of counterfeit weight loss drugs are widespread include Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East.
Several people were hospitalized in Austria due to low blood sugar levels after taking what were likely counterfeit Ozambic drugs.
The health safety regulator there said that the side effects indicate that the product contains insulin instead of semaglutide.
Last month, Belgium’s medicines regulator said it had seized counterfeit copies of the drug Ozambic and that the injection pens had been confirmed to contain insulin.
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2023-11-29 05:44:01
#Suspected #fake #injections #injuries #Lebanon
