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<\/p>\nA number of operations have been carried out by Revenue customs service targeting weight-loss and other medical products.<\/p>\n
In one operation assisted by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), 85 shipments of illicit weight-loss products were identified packaged as Ozempic and other brands including Wegovy and Mounjaro.<\/p>\n
During this operation, additional products packaged as the anti-diabetic and weight-loss medication Tirzepatide were intercepted.<\/p>\n
Another operation carried out over two weeks saw Revenue officers examine parcels at premises in Dublin and the midlands, where they made 635 detections of products.<\/p>\n
The parcels were found to contain products including illicit medical products packaged as semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, and \u201csubstantial volumes of unknown Botox-type and tanning products believed to have been sourced via social media\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sample of goods seized during operation assisted by the HPRA. Photo: Revenue<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – June 12 2025<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said these seizures \u201creflect an emerging trend noted by Revenue officers\u201d, particularly those based at national mail centres and courier hubs, of a \u201csignificant increase\u201d in the number of packages containing prescription only medical products ordered by mail.<\/p>\n
They said the \u201cvast majority\u201d of these intercepted packaged contained weight-loss products addressed to private individuals who bought them online.<\/p>\n
Larger consignments of the goods are also occasionally detected at ports and airports.<\/p>\n
Revenue enforcement teams have almost 11,000 individual weight-loss products over the course of all operations, as of May 31.<\/p>\n
This marks a \u201csignificant increase\u201d on the 2,300 individual products seized all of last year.<\/p>\n
Consumers have been issued a reminder of the importance of taking care when buying medical products online, \u201cas they may not be safe or effective\u201d.<\/p>\n
They have also been advised to be cautious as they could suffer a financial loss if the goods they buy are seized.<\/p>\n
Investigations in respect of all operation carried out by Revenue are ongoing.<\/p>\n
In April, the HPRA announced more than one million units of illegal medicines had been seized last year, up 14pc on 2023.<\/p>\n
This included 203,088 units of anabolic steroids, 146,866 units of sedative drugs, 119,289 units of erectile dysfunction medicines and 113,555 analgesic drugs used for the treatment of pain.<\/p>\n
The HPRA noted an upward trend in the use of medical weight-loss products like Ozempic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile purchasing online is second nature for many of us, when it comes to prescription medicines, people need to ensure that the product is prescribed by a healthcare professional and sourced from a local pharmacy,\u201d HPRA director of compliance Grainne Power said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour pharmacy has sourced medicines from authorised sources for your protection and is an expert in their use. Using these prescription medicines without medical supervision or from an unregulated source leaves people unprotected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe seizure of over one million dosage units of illegal medicines last year highlights the persistent extent of the threats posed by falsified and unauthorised prescription medicines.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of operations have been carried out by Revenue customs service targeting weight-loss and other medical products.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[105,6686,4326,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-179014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-latest-news-ticker","10":"tag-medication","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114671785294179186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}