A woman from Birkenhead has warned others about the risks of unlicensed weight-loss injections after she was rushed to hospital. Kay Roscoe, 38, fell seriously ill after taking a substance sold as retatrutide, also known as "reta", for two months.
Ms Roscoe's friend found her unable to speak or stand, frothing at the mouth and unresponsive. She was taken to hospital where tests confirmed she had suffered severe hypoglycaemia, a condition where blood sugar levels fall dangerously low. Medical records attributed the episode to an unlicensed weight-loss injection.
In the weeks following her hospitalisation, Ms Roscoe has experienced continued health problems, including extreme fatigue. Further tests have shown signs of liver damage and high cholesterol, conditions she did not have before the episode.
Retatrutide is an experimental drug currently undergoing clinical trials by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and is not approved for general use. Eli Lilly has stated that the drug has not been approved by any regulator and cannot legally be sold for human use.
Dr Nas Khattak, a research doctor, warned of the dangers of injections from unregulated sources, stating that the dose, purity, sterility, or contents cannot be verified. The UK's medicines regulator, the MHRA, has seized products claiming to contain retatrutide and is working to disrupt their illegal importation and distribution.