Quick fix for weight woes online? Don't buy it

Hoping to make a fast buck from those looking for a quick fix to their weight woes, peddlers are touting slimming pills online illegally.

Some sell weight-loss pills prescribed by their doctors for a tidy profit. Others hawk natural supplements that contain toxic ingredients. One peddler made a profit of close to $18,000 in six months from selling pills that were marketed as "100 per cent natural", but contained a banned ingredient that increases the risk of a heart attack.

The Health Sciences Authority (HSA), which regulates health products, has prosecuted seven women, including an engineer, for selling slimming pills illegally in the past two years. They sold their products through social media, discussion forums and other websites.

The latest case involved an unemployed 27-year-old woman who was fined $8,000 on June 27 .

She sold Li Da Dai Dai Hua weight-loss capsules for $50 a box, having bought them for US$2.45 (S$3.30) from overseas.

The pills were touted to be 100 per cent herbal, but HSA's tests found they contained undeclared ingredients such as sibutramine, which is banned as it can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Slimming pills made the news recently after a 22-year-old student in Singapore, who was in the healthy weight range, died from an overdose of such pills.

On May 31, the Coroner's Court heard how Ms Huang Guo had almost 10 different drugs for weight loss and for countering the side effects of these pills. She had ordered them from the websites of a clinic and a hospital in Thailand. Her blood was found to have about eight times the therapeutic limit for phentermine, the active ingredient in appetite suppressant Duromine.

Of those caught by the HSA, two women sold Duromine, a popular weight-loss drug that only doctors can prescribe here.

A 21-year-old unemployed woman obtained Duromine from a clinic and advertised it online for $180 a box. But she raised the price to $250 when she found buyers were willing to fork out extra. She was fined $3,000 last December.

Another peddler, a 33-year-old engineer, obtained Duromine from a clinic for $45 a box for her own use. She then sold it at $95 a box.

She was also convicted last December and fined $3,000.

It is an offence to sell medicine prescribed by a doctor or dispensed by a pharmacist to others, and offenders can be fined up to $10,000 and/or jailed up to two years.

Doctors say they charge between $40 and $60 for a box of Duromine with 30 capsules, excluding consultation fees. General practitioners interviewed charge between $20 and $30 on average for consultations during office hours. On a popular online forum, there were at least 20 people in the past year selling Duromine, and for as much as $150 per box, checks by The Sunday Times found.

Dr Tan Kok Kuan, of Dr Tan & Partners, said: "Duromine is very effective and it works very fast, and that is why it is so popular."

But it can be addictive and its side effects include insomnia, mood swings and heart palpitations.

Under the Singapore health authorities' guidelines, doctors are advised to prescribe it only to patients who are obese with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, or to those who are overweight with a BMI of 27.5 or higher and suffer from diabetes or other obesity-related conditions. Doctors say they prescribe Duromine for up to six months and its consumption must be supervised by a doctor.

In 2009, the Health Ministry warned doctors to be more stringent in prescribing slimming drugs to patients who may not need them. This came after the International Narcotics Control Board listed Singapore as among the countries with the highest consumption of phentermine worldwide.

Some who are slim also try to get Duromine from doctors.

They want to look good for their wedding or are seeking to shed the extra weight gained after a holiday, doctors interviewed say.

Most who ask their doctors for weight-loss pills are women, from teenagers to those in middle age.

Dr Daniel Wai, of Daniel Wai Diabetes, Thyroid and Hormone Clinic, said: "Some who ask for the drug are not overweight but they think they are fat, because they are not as skinny as Fann Wong or other actresses and models."

So these women may turn to online peddlers if they cannot get the pill from their doctors, he said.

An HSA spokesman advised the public not to buy health products from unknown websites or people posting offers on online forums or blogs. Among other dangers, the product could be fake or adulterated with undeclared ingredients that are harmful.

'Natural' products adulterated with banned ingredients

A 23-year-old woman made close to $18,000 in profit in just six months by selling a weight-loss pill called Figure Up for $40 a bottle.

It was touted to be "100 per cent natural" but it was adulterated with undeclared ingredients sibutramine and diclofenac.

Sibutramine has been banned as it can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, while diclofenac is a potent painkiller that may cause serious gastric bleeding, heart attacks and strokes when used for a prolonged period.

The self-employed woman was convicted in September last year and fined $9,000.

Another peddler, a 41-year-old system administrator, sold the Nutri Drops Grapefruit Diet, which claims to work in "seven miracle ways" to increase metabolism and burn fats.

The woman took it herself at first and decided to buy it in bulk to sell online. She paid about $41 per bottle and sold it for $65.

Within five months, she sold more than 100 bottles and made an estimated $3,000 profit.

It was labelled as containing only natural ingredients, such as grapefruit, green tea and pomegranate but it had undeclared potent ingredients, such as sibutramine and phenolphthalein. Phenolphthalein can cause abdominal cramps, breathing difficulties and kidney disorders.

One of her clients, an 18- year-old student who wanted to be known only as Amanda, suffered hallucinations after taking Nutri Drops. She weighed over 80kg and wanted to shed the pounds.

She found Nutri Drops through the online marketplace, Carousell, and was thrilled when she lost about 10kg in a month. She was onto her second bottle when things got out of hand.

Her mother said: "She had mood swings, started talking to herself and said she heard voices."

Amanda had to be hospitalised but has since recovered after she stopped taking the pills.

She warned: "Don't take these pills as you are risking your life."

The peddler was fined $7,000 last December.

Kidney failure, hallucinations after taking pills bought online

A man in his 20s suffered acute kidney failure after taking a dietary supplement called Nutrex Research Adipodex for two weeks.

It was labelled as containing yohimbine, a potent medicinal ingredient that is not allowed in supplements sold here. It can lead to chest pain and blurred vision, among other adverse effects.

The man, who bought the product online, was discharged from hospital after a week.

But one woman was not so lucky. She died in 2012 after taking slimming pills she had bought through a foreign-based website. The 24-year-old died of dinitrophenol (DNP) poisoning. The banned substance is used in herbicides.

In the last five years, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has received five adverse drug reaction reports on the use of illegal weight-loss products.

Besides the man hospitalised for kidney failure, other victims suffered problems such as hallucinations and rapid heart rate.

A spokesman for HSA said the small number of reported cases may not reflect the actual number of people affected by taking such pills. They may not know their adverse reaction is due to the product or may not tell their doctor about it.

Dr Lee Ee Lian, a psychiatrist at the Better Life Clinic, has seen patients with problems ranging from hallucinations to liver failure after taking slimming pills they bought online. They include a 24-year-old woman suffering from anorexia. At her lightest, she weighed only 34kg. She was afraid of putting on weight, especially after meals she did not prepare herself, and would starve herself.

Dr Lee said the patient also took five or six different types of slimming pills, bought from United States-based websites, and was hospitalised earlier this year for liver damage. She has stopped taking the pills and is now recovering.

"Don't buy pills online. They could be fake and you don't know what other kind of weird drugs they could be contaminated with," Dr Lee said.

"You could go nuts or even drop dead from a cardiac arrest."

This article was first published on Aug 14, 2016.
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