Two arrests after weight loss drugs found in raid

Two people have been arrested after about 12,000 doses of unlicensed weight loss medicines were recovered in a raid at a country estate.

The operation took place at a property near Northampton on Thursday night, led by officers from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and supported by Northamptonshire Police.

Investigators believe the site had been used as a large-scale facility to manufacture, assemble and distribute unlicensed weight loss medicines, including retatrutide and tirzepatide, as well as peptide products.

Two men, both 29, were arrested on suspicion of offences under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.

At the property, officers found "substantial quantities of packaging materials" which are believed to be linked to pharmaceutical substances used to make the products.

Andy Morling, head of the MHRA's criminal enforcement unit, said he was grateful to Northamptonshire Police for their support.

He continued: "In addition to disrupting an organised criminal group, I'm confident that dismantling this illicit production facility will have prevented significant public harm."

The MHRA described the raid as "the latest in a series of successful enforcement actions" to target the illegal supply of weight loss drugs.

It claimed that in recent months it has carried out other raids and confiscated "significant quantities of unlicensed and potentially dangerous products".

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