A country estate has been exposed as a huge weight loss drugs factory in the UK’s largest ever seizure of illegal jabs.
Two men, both aged 29, were arrested in connection with the illegal operation.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), with the help of Northamptonshire Police, carried out a raid on a property near Northampton on Thursday night.
Inside, officers discovered an astonishing 12,000 doses of unlicensed weight loss medicines as well as ‘substantial quantities’ of packaging materials and what is alleged to be pharmaceutical substances used in the illicit manufacture of the products.
The MHRA said the estate is believed to have been used to manufacture, assemble and distribute unlicensed weight loss medicines, including retatrutide and tirzepatide, as well as peptide products.
Tirzepatide is often found in the popular Mounjaro jabs while retatrutide is a much more experimental drug which is still being tested in clinical trials.
The agency added that it was their largest ever seizure of such products.
Pictures from the site show dozens of cardboard boxes and containers full of jabs scattered across messy rooms.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), with the help of Northamptonshire Police, carried out a raid on the property near Northampton on Thursday night where they discovered an astonishing 12,000 doses of unlicensed weight loss medicines
Pictures from the site show dozens of cardboard boxes and containers full of jabs scattered across messy rooms
Both men were arrested on suspicion of offences under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.
Andy Morling, head of the MHRA’s criminal enforcement unit, said: ‘Last night’s hugely successful operation demonstrates, once again, the MHRA’s unwavering commitment to ensuring there is no hiding place for those who cynically put the public’s health at risk for profit.
‘Medicines regulation isn’t discretionary – it exists to protect people.
‘That’s why we continue to target the traffickers who seek to bypass that protection – taking down the infrastructure that supports them and creating a hostile environment for their exploitative and harmful trade.
‘I’m confident that dismantling this illicit production facility will have prevented significant public harm.’
