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More than 5,000 illegally traded glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) products were seized by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in 2025, it has announced.
On 26 January 2026, the MHRA said that weight-loss drugs were among almost 20 million doses of illegally traded medicines seized in 2025 by the agency’s Criminal Enforcement Unit (CEU), with a street value of around £45m.
Other illegally traded medicines seized in 2025 included 9.9 million doses of sedatives and sleeping pills and 4.1 million doses of painkillers, while erectile dysfunction treatments amounted to around 4.4 million seized doses, the MHRA said.
As well as seizing illegally traded products, the MHRA CEU worked with internet service providers to disrupt more than 1,500 websites and social media accounts, which were marketing illegal products to the general public. The agency said that more than 1,200 social media posts were also removed.
“If a medicine is unauthorised, it will not have been assessed by the MHRA for its safety, effectiveness or the quality and hygiene of its manufacturing and distribution processes. Anyone buying such a product cannot be sure what it contains or whether it will cause them harm,” the MHRA added.
“Most of the seized medicines are not authorised for sale in the UK, so can contain too much or too little of the declared active ingredient and may also contain other harmful ingredients.”
In October 2025, the MHRA undertook what it believed was the “largest single seizure of trafficked weight-loss medicines ever recorded by a law enforcement agency worldwide”, with more than 2,000 unlicensed weight-loss pens, plus raw chemical ingredients, seized from a warehouse in Northampton.
Andy Morling, deputy director of enforcement at the MHRA, commented: “I would urge everyone to think very carefully before buying powerful medicines online. If something looks or feels wrong, it probably is.
“Products sold illegally online may contain harmful substances or the incorrect dosage, and either of these could seriously damage your health. Always use a registered pharmacy — your safety is not worth the risk.”
The MHRA has also worked with eBay on an algorithm that has been developed to recognise and block violations of the site’s policy on selling medical devices and equipment.
The algorithm intercepted more than 2 million violations of this policy before the products could be placed on sale, the MHRA said.
According to MHRA data, the number of seized products has risen since 2024, when around 17 million doses with a potential street value of more than £40m were confiscated. The products seized were mainly erectile dysfunction medicines, pain treatments, sedatives and sleep disorder treatments.
In October 2024, the MHRA said that weight-loss medicines made up a “very small part” of medicines being illegally trafficked into the UK.
Read more: ‘Weight-loss drugs: is social media promotion to teenagers still a problem?‘
