Companies selling illegal weight-loss drugs are amassing positive Trustpilot reviews as critics say regulatory gaps allow high-risk operators to appear credible.A Guardian investigation found that Retatrutide UK had a score of 4.4 on the global review site, despite purporting to offer a drug that is unlicensed and illegal to sell or buy.Its website sells a 20mg retatrutide pen for £132.It is among a number of operators promoting themselves on the review website to appear legitimate.

Academics have said the findings are alarming, showing how easy it is for people to be drawn into unregulated markets.One reviewer of Retatrutide UK on Trustpilot wrote: “So far so good.My pen arrived quickly and … First few pounds off and still feeling well with it.Would recommend.” The company did not respond to a request for a comment.

Retatrutide, which has not yet completed clinical trials, is an experimental injection developed by the US drugmaker Eli Lilly that targets three gut hormones: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon.Early studies suggest it could help patients lose up to a quarter of their body weight, leading to it being hailed online as the next Ozempic.Ozempic is not licensed in the UK as a weight-loss drug.Buying Retatrutide illegally, however, carries serious risks.Because the drug is still experimental, products sold online or through unofficial channels are unregulated and may not contain the correct ingredients or dosage and may not be sterilised to the correct standard.

Contaminated or incorrectly dosed injectable hormones can cause infections, dangerous blood sugar crashes, pancreatitisand cardiovascular side effects.Using an unfinished clinical-trial drug outside legitimate medical settings is unsafe and potentially life-threatening.Alluvi Health Care, the company at the centre of a recent weight-loss drug raid by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, was also reviewed on Trustpilot.The MHRA and police raided an illicit facility manufacturing and distributing unlicensed products labelled as being produced by Alluvi in October.The company nevertheless had a 3.

5 Trustpilot rating, accompanied by an AI-generated summary stating: “Customers are generally satisfied with the company’s products, order processing and delivery service.” Alluvi Health Care did not respond to a request for a comment.Another seller, operating under the name Retatide claims to be “powered by retatrutide, a cutting-edge triple-action peptide formula”.It tells customers that “people are switching daily after stalling on Mounjaro or Tirzepatide”.Its Trustpilot page gives a 4.

6 rating with a plethora of five-star reviews.When approached by the Guardian, the seller said it had “disengaged from Retatide.com and Retatrutide … several months ago”.A separate site, Retatrutide Pens, had a 4.7-star Trustpilot rating, but its webpage displayed an “immediate closure notice”.

Trustpilot’s algorithm provided an upbeat overview, saying customers “overwhelmingly had a great experience”, praising the product’s discreet packaging,It comes as TikTok accounts offer Black Friday deals on retatrutide and similar drugs,One company posted: “Yep … it’s happening” alongside a banner advertising “20% off + free next day” delivery, using hashtags such as “ratatouille” – code for retatrutide - and “tirzepatide”,Another account advertised “reta 40mg” at 25% off,The trading and marketing of high-risk goods and services is not allowed, according to a TikTok spokesperson.

They said it had banned the hashtags #retatrutide and #reta, and would continue to remove content that violates guidelines.Emily Rickard, of the University of Bath, who researches the political economy of the pharmaceutical industry, said: “In our research we consistently uncover advertising rule breaches across regulated online weight-loss services, exposing how weak the current safeguards are even surrounding officially approved products.“Against that backdrop, the prevalence of illegal sellers offering unlicensed drugs like retatrutide – and presenting themselves as legitimate via glowing Trustpilot reviews – is especially alarming and dangerous.It shows how within just a few clicks people can be drawn into unsafe, unregulated markets.”Piotr Ozieranski, a reader in sociology at Bath, said: “The regulators should move towards starting investigations into suspected unethical practices proactively and use administrative fines linked to company turnover or market share.

“Currently, it feels that the worst that can happen is that a company gets a slap on the wrist, and the public is often left unprotected.”Chris Emmis, the co-founder of the verification firm KwikChex, said: “Rogue and criminal operators rely on social media and supposedly ‘trusted’ online reviews to persuade consumers to buy these products.Urgent action is needed.”Trustpilot has since taken action to block all businesses highlighted in the Guardian’s investigation.It said it was an “open review platform, meaning that anyone can create a profile for a business and submit a review”, but that it removes and blocks business thatdo not align with its ethical standards.

A spokesperson said: “As with other misuse, such as review fabrication, bad actors are continuously evolving their tactics in an attempt to circumvent our detection.Alongside other high-risk industries, we continue to investigate companies selling drug-related products and evolve our processes to protect the integrity of the platform.”A spokesperson for the MHRA said: “Public safety is the number one priority for the MHRA, and its criminal enforcement unit works hard to prevent, detect and investigate illegal activity involving medicines and medical devices and takes robust enforcement action where necessary.”The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.

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