Australia’s peak drug regulator has confirmed it’s probing social media platforms and influencers over statements made a few diabetic drug in its place weight reduction therapy, when there’s a crucial international scarcity.
Dozens of social media accounts on platforms like TikTok and Instagram have boasted of the physique transformations by means of the usage of Ozempic, an antidiabetic remedy used to enhance blood sugar ranges and decrease the chance of coronary heart assaults and strokes in adults with kind 2 diabetes.
Some movies clarify how a lot weight they’ve misplaced after weeks of utilizing the drug, which is a model of the medication semaglutide.
But the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in November stated Ozempic will not be out there throughout the nation till the top of March 2023 as a consequence of an unprecedented enhance in demand.
In a launch, they stated it was brought on by docs prescribing the drug “off label” for weight reduction.
“The TGA does not have the power to regulate the clinical decisions of health professionals and is unable to prevent doctors from using their clinical judgement to prescribe Ozempic for
other health conditions,” the TGA launch states.
In an announcement to NCA NewsWire, a TGA spokeswoman confirmed they have been investigating stories of alleged illegal promoting of Ozempic.
“The TGA has regular discussions with digital platforms and social media sites, including to advise them on the rules for advertising therapeutic goods, including to advise them on the rules for advertising therapeutic goods and to help enhance their monitoring systems, which blocks users from posting unlawful content including for Ozempic,” their assertion reads.
The organisation stated they have been working with digital platforms together with TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, eBay, Amazon and Gumtree amongst others however couldn’t affirm which particular accounts they have been inspecting.
“Advertising of prescription medicines directly to the public, including through social media is illegal in Australia and fines and civil and criminal penalties can apply,” the TGA spokeswoman stated.
“Ozempic is a prescription only medicine and cannot be advertised to the public.
“This is because prescription medicines are higher risk medicines and should only be determined as an appropriate treatment option in consultation with a professionally trained medical practitioner and not on the basis of consumer advertising.”
NCA NewsWire will not be suggesting any of the social media accounts used on this article have breached Australian legislation.
While docs can prescribe the drug off-label for weight reduction, Ozempic’s personal web site reiterates it it not a weight reduction drug.
Possible unwanted effects from its use can embrace kidney issues, irritation of the pancreas, modifications in imaginative and prescient, extreme allergic reactions and even the attainable growth of thyroid tumours, together with most cancers.
“The most common side effects of Ozempic may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach (abdominal) pain, and constipation,” the product’s warning web page states.
The Australian scarcity of the drug is regardless of the TGA and Ozempic’s producer Novo Nordisk issuing a joint assertion in mid-2022 for docs to prescribe the drug for sufferers with kind 2 diabetes as a precedence.
