Australia's medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), has issued a warning about the serious risks of counterfeit weight loss products after a patient tore their oesophagus. The individual was hospitalised after experiencing severe and uncontrollable vomiting, following the use of what they believed to be the experimental drug retatrutide.
The TGA investigated a sample of the product and found it contained semaglutide, another peptide that targets hunger, but no retatrutide. The detected amount of semaglutide was approximately eight times higher than levels found in approved semaglutide products.
Retatrutide, a type of peptide, has not been approved by the TGA or overseas regulators and cannot be legally prescribed or sold in Australia. Despite this, it has been promoted on social media and sold on the hidden market under names such as Reta, R-10, and R-20, often in unmarked vials.
Professor Robyn Langham, the TGA's chief medical adviser, stated that online products may be fake or counterfeit and could contain ingredients posing serious health risks. She highlighted concerns about not knowing the contents, quantity, sterility, or potential contaminants in unapproved peptide products, especially for injectables where non-sterile manufacturing can increase infection and harmful immune responses.
The Victorian health department issued a similar warning in June after six cases of acute liver toxicity were associated with products labelled as retatrutide. Australia's chief medical officer has also previously warned about unapproved peptides due to reports of serious adverse effects including liver damage, inflammation, and severe allergic reactions.