3 sentenced for sales of Ozempic knock-off

A court in Ningxiang, Hunan province, has sentenced three people up to 11 years in prison and levied fines of 2.73 million yuan ($385,000) for manufacturing and selling fake Ozempic, a medicine for treating diabetes that has been widely used to lose weight, rednet.cn reported.

The Ningxiang People's Court confiscated all the illegal profits. The fines were triple that figure. The three people were also ordered to apologize through national media outlets.

Under China's Criminal Law, people found guilty of manufacturing, selling or providing fake medicine can be sentenced to life in prison, or even death, if the medicine has caused others to die or led to other serious consequences.

Local prosecutors found that the three individuals had manufactured drugs labeled as Novo Nordisk's Ozempic injections since May 2023 without obtaining a license. The products were sold in regions across the country via online platforms.

After the suspects were detained by the police, drug inspection authorities found that the medicine was not genuine Ozempic but a knock-off, or copy.

Criminal charges were brought on May 27, and a separate civil lawsuit was also filed by prosecutors a day later.

They also referred the matter to market regulation authorities in Ningxiang, which confiscated money and handed fines of 10,000 yuan each to two salespeople.

Ozempic was approved for the Chinese market in 2021. At least two Chinese companies, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group and Hangzhou Jiuyuan Gene Engineering, have applied to begin commercial sales of Ozempic copies, according to Reuters news agency.