A health watchdog has received hundreds of reports over the past 13 months of Scots who have fallen ill after injecting ground-breaking weight-loss drugs.
The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has detailed the sheer scale of adverse reactions suffered by people north of the Border as the use of ‘miracle jabs’ such as Ozempic and Mounjaro continues to soar.
The weight-loss injections have been popularised by a host of celebrities since being rolled out over the past few years.
But the MHRA has now disclosed it has been notified 361 times since January last year of patients in Scotland who have fallen ill after taking the drugs.
It comes after Scots nurse Susan McGowan became the first person in the UK whose death was directly linked to a weight-loss jab.
The healthcare worker died at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie on September 4.
The 58-year-old suffered organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis after taking two injections of ‘prescribed tirzepatide’, sold under the brand name Mounjaro.
Experts believe a significant proportion of those who suffer an adverse reaction will be people who bought the injections from online pharmacies and took them without oversight from a doctor.
Susan McGowan, 58, was the first person in the UK whose death was directly linked to a weight-loss jab
The MHRA has also warned that a small group of patients have been hospitalised after using ‘fake’ drugs they bought online.
Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said the drugs work well for patients they are intended for, such as the morbidly obese and diabetics.
However, he said too many people are using them who shouldn’t be and many are taking them without proper medical supervision.
Mr Fry said: ‘We have a plethora of people responding to claims by celebrities.
‘We have people taking it just to lose weight before they go to the beach in the summer. People are buying it online from people selling fake versions.
‘There are also online pharmacies making a lot of money by selling it to people without carrying out the appropriate checks.
‘It’s the misuse of very powerful drugs that’s causing these problems. We need better regulation to address these issues.’
The Society for Acute Medicine has also raised red flags. Dr Vicky Price, its president-elect, said she and her colleagues in acute medicine across the UK ‘are very concerned about the increasing numbers of patients’ presenting with complications ‘from new weight-loss drugs they have purchased online’.
Weight-loss jabs have been popularised by celebrities over the past few years
She added: ‘We are seeing life-threatening complications including inflammation of the pancreas gland and alterations in blood salt levels in patients who were not aware of the risk they were taking.
‘Sadly these presentations are not slowing down despite the issue being raised consistently.
‘We continue to highlight this inappropriate use with the MHRA as there is a need for urgent regulation and control of access for weight loss drugs online to avoid more patients becoming unwell.’
The MHRA has said adverse reactions and hospitalisations linked to the drugs chiefly involve gastrointestinal side-effects such as nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhoea.
However, it has said the benefits still outweigh potential risks when the drugs are used in consultation with doctors.
Dr Alison Cave, MHRA chief safety officer, said: ‘It is important to note that a reaction reported does not necessarily mean it has been caused by the medicine.
‘Underlying or concurrent illnesses may be responsible, or the events could be coincidental.
‘On the basis of the current evidence, the benefits outweigh the potential risks.’
