JOHANNESBURG - After several complaints about illegally manufactured weight-loss drugs, authorities have stepped in to shut down their production and distribution.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has closed a plant in Silverton, east of Pretoria, that was found to be producing semaglutide and tirzepatide.
Although the facility is legally registered under the Pharmacy Act, it was found to be manufacturing these drugs unlawfully.
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These medicines are primarily used to treat diabetes but are also prescribed for weight loss. According to complaints, they were being produced outside the bounds of the law.
The manufacturer was also found to be working with a network of pharmacies and doctors who were distributing the products on a large scale.
"We had been doing this investigation over a long period of time to establish facts," says SAHPRA's Mokgadi Fafudi.
On 11 May, SAHPRA inspectors, together with officials from the South African Pharmacy Council, raided the facility. Fafudi says the plant was found to be producing the drugs in contravention of both the Medicines Act and the Pharmacy Act.
"We found the active pharmaceutical ingredients which could not be accounted for," says Fafudi.
Several finished semaglutide products, as well as products containing tirzepatide, were also discovered on site.
Fafudi says combinations of tirzepatide and semaglutide are still undergoing clinical trials and have not yet been approved for use.
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"These are schedule four substances which, in the scale at which they are produced, should be registered by SAHPRA," says Fafudi.
The plant should also be licensed by SAHPRA for manufacturing, which it is not.