Argentine food and drug regulator ANMAT has banned pills that were fraudulently being sold online as the popular diabetes and weight loss drug, Ozempic.

The fake Ozempic was sold as tablets, rather than the standard injection pen, and the companies manufacturing and selling it were not registered with ANMAT. The regulator has reported them to the public prosecutor’s cybercrime unit.

Ozempic is a GLP-1 medication used to treat diabetes and help patients lose weight. It has revolutionized treatment in these areas — but doctors say they’re seeing increasing demand for the drug from individuals who do not need it because they want to slim down. The product can be cheaper in Argentina than countries such as the U.S. — but cases such as this could prompt would-be buyers to look before they leap.

ANMAT’s decision was published in Argentina’s Official Gazette on Monday. It applies to the product “Ozempíc® Semaglutida Tablets USP” produced by Pharma Argentina.

A source from ANMAT told the Herald that the deceptive product was only being sold on social media and had not reached stores. 

ANMAT established that the product was false because the Ozempic brand exists only as an injection pen, not as a pill, and the companies supposedly producing and distributing it are not registered with the relevant drug authorities. “Ozempic is only administered by injection. Anything that is not injectable is not real,” the source said.

The regulator has not tested a sample of the pills to establish what they really contain.

ANMAT was alerted to the fake product when the company Novo Nordisk Pharma Argentina, which is legally allowed to produce and sell Ozempic under that name in the country, filed a report after an employee spotted the bogus product on social media.

The sellers of the product claimed it contained semaglutide, the anti-diabetes medication present in the original Ozempic, but in a tablet format. While some drugs containing semaglutide as an active ingredient exist as pills, Ozempic itself does not. The technical director at Novo Nordisk Pharma Argentina told ANMAT that “there does not exist, at a worldwide level, an oral administered Ozempic product” and that the product in question “had been falsified.”

A health product monitoring office within ANMAT then verified that the only product registered under the name Ozempic in Argentina is only available on prescription, in a vial format, and follows strict traceability procedures. 

The sellers on social media claimed the product had been manufactured by a company called MD Pharma, ANMAT found. But neither that firm nor Pharma Argentina are registered with the regulator for medicine production and distribution. 

The Herald contacted MD Pharma for comment through its website, but had not received an answer at time of writing. Pharma Argentina could not be reached for comment, and the Herald was unable to identify a website or social media presence for a company going by that name.

ANMAT had already issued a warning about the false Ozempic product in July, advising healthcare institutions, distributors and staff to report it if they discovered any at their places of work.

In Argentina, Ozempic is only produced and distributed by Novo Nordisk Pharma Argentina S.A. However, Laboratory ELEA also produces what is informally known as the “Argentine Ozempic,” which contains semaglutide in tablet format. According to ELEA, it is “the first oral semaglutide in the country” and serves as “an innovative solution for the integral treatment of type 2 diabetes.” It is only available on prescription.