Telangana DCA serves notices to 75 medical shops over weight loss drug violations

The Drugs Control Administration (DCA), Telangana, has issued show cause notices to 75 medical shops in Hyderabad for violations related to the sale of weight loss drugs, including Tirzepatide and Semaglutide formulations.

Hyderabad: The Drugs Control Administration (DCA), Telangana on Thursday issued show cause notices to 75 medical shops for various violations while selling weight loss drugs.

The special drive focused on weight loss drugs containing Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) and Semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus) as well as generic equivalents of Semaglutide formulations, manufactured by various companies and recently introduced into the market following the patent expiry of the innovator’s Semaglutide formulations, along with other weight loss drugs.

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The violations detected included sale of drugs without prescriptions and without issuing bills, failure to produce sales bills, failure to maintain prescription drug registers, dispensing prescription drugs without the presence of a Registered Pharmacist, failure to produce purchase bills, irregularities in maintaining copies of sales and purchase bills.

In an advisory, the DCA said weight loss drugs (Tirzepatide and Semaglutide formulations) should be used strictly with prescriptions from specialists such as endocrinologists and internal medicine specialists, and, for certain approved indications, by cardiologists.

“The public is strongly advised not to self-medicate with such formulations for weight loss or any other purpose. Improper or unsupervised use of these formulations may lead to serious health complications,” said Shahnawaz Qasim, Director General, DCA.