Illegal weight-loss drugs still sold despite court order

Revised guidelines for compounding pharmacies are not expected until February or March next year. Stavros Nicolaou, chairperson of the Pharmaceutical Task Group, said the court order could lose its momentum if the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) and the South African Pharmacy Council do not follow up quickly. He said the rules take too long and that regulators should ban or restrict compounding pharmacies for weight-loss jabs, as other countries have done.

Nicolaou also said retatrutide is sold openly around the world, including in South Africa. Daphne Fafudi, head of regulatory compliance at Sahpra, said fake medicines are getting out of control. She said people die without it coming to Sahpra's attention, and that the authority has received around 600 complaints so far this financial year about fake medicines sold through informal supply chains.

Gene Ravele, a South African Revenue Service official, said poor coordination between enforcement agencies is the biggest problem that organised crime exploits. Nakampe Masiapato, head of the Border Management Authority, said police detectives and prosecutors are often generalists who are ill-equipped for specialised pharmaceutical cases. Fafudi told consumers: "If you cannot trust the source, do not trust the medicine."