A patient in Austria had to be treated in a hospital after using a counterfeit diabetes medicine (Ozempic). The Federal Office for Health System Security (BASG) announced this today. Furthermore, counterfeits of the diabetes pen have already reached patients in Austria.
BASG assumes that there are other counterfeits that are difficult or impossible to detect, he warned. When questioned, there were no details about the patient. When questioned, BASG also did not provide details about the condition.
BASG warns against “unauthorized orders”
The counterfeit product with a different active ingredient was likely ordered online. There is no evidence that the counterfeit products were distributed to patients by legal pharmacies. BASG warns patients “strongly and urgently against any unauthorized ordering of ‘Ozempic’ on the Internet”.
“Genuine medicines can only be purchased with a prescription and dispensed from a community pharmacy. This is the only way to guarantee that the product purchased is an approved, well-tested, safe and effective medicine and, therefore, authentic”, states BASG.
Patients are advised not to use Ozempic pre-filled pens that are suspected of being counterfeit. Suspicious cases or information about possibly counterfeit products must be reported to the BASG office responsible for combating illegality ([email protected]). The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has warned against counterfeiting Ozempic.