Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee has just published a report Food and Weight Management: Modernising obesity treatment.
One of the things the Committee looked at was “The regulatory landscape”. The Committee “explored the capacity of the regulatory system to tackle illegal and counterfeit GLP-1s, including action taken against posts on social media enabling access to such products”.
The Deputy Director of Criminal Enforcement and Head of the Criminal Enforcement Unit at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gave evidence that the MHRA:
“did have the capability and capacity to tackle the illegal trade, …in relation to social media, his team actively patrolled the internet for examples of illegal activity and worked with social media company to remove offending accounts …They relied heavily on pubic reporting to identify issues … the ‘whack-a-mole’ nature of the approach … reflected the nature of the territory … and the sheer volume and speed at which these things can be posted …”.
The Committee’s conclusion suggests that it did not agree with what the MHRA witness had said about its capability and capacity. The Committee’s conclusion was:
“While we acknowledge the ongoing efforts to tackle the illegal trade of GLP-1s, we remain concerned that the regulatory system is inadequately equipped to keep up with the scale of demand for GLP-1s, or flexible enough to deal with changes such as patent expiry and the availability of tablets. There are already examples of harm to people who have accessed illegal GLP-1s online, and we are concerned that these will increase as availability and demand for these products increases. The MHRA seems to be playing catch up, rather than proactively addressing this challenge, particularly with social media.”
The Committee recommended that the government must review the capacity and capability of the MHRA and say whether it considers the MHRA is sufficiently resourced to address the illegal trade in GLP-1s.
The Committee also called for a joined-up action plan for dealing with illegal trade in GLP-1s and access to them, setting out clear areas of responsibility.
The Committee additionally recommended that the government should explore how social media companies can be compelled to remove posts or accounts, including whether powers of the MHRA need to be expanded to enable this. (Readers who have read our news item of 17 May 2006 about civil injunctions being granted to block websites selling counterfeit and unlicensed medicines may be inclined to agree with the Committee’s conclusions.)
The Committee called on the government to launch a public awareness campaign to reach members of the public most likely to consider buying from unregulated sources.