Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace 'Nearly Died' After Taking Fake Ozempic-How To Identify Them

Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace said she "nearly died" after taking suspected fake Ozempic. During a recent interview, the British TV personality confessed that she purchased Ozempic from the black market after gaining 28 pounds. However, what she experienced in the aftermath was nothing short of a nightmare. "I'm not proud, but I bought Ozempic injections from the black market. I must have had a dodgy batch because my body reacted so badly. For three days, I thought I was going to die," she said in a recent interview.

Ozempic and other semaglutide medications work by mimicking GLP-1—a natural hormone produced in the intestines that regulates blood sugar, appetite, and digestion. It is this hormone that, besides regulating the production of insulin, travels to the hypothalamus in your brain, which gives you the feeling of being full or satiated. While Ozempic is primarily a diabetes drug, its weight loss impact has made its demand high. This has triggered many counterfeit and compounded versions of Ozempic that have since hit the market.

The former reality star shared the details of her adverse reaction, which included spending a lot of time in bed sleeping, then waking up, vomiting, and experiencing diarrhoea before falling asleep again. "At one point, I had three bags of vomit by my bedside. Frighteningly, I started losing my vision, my eyes were going blurry, and I couldn’t even see my phone. I had no idea what was going to happen to me," she recalled. It is pertinent to know that the World Health Organization (WHO) in June last year, In June 2024, issued a warning about counterfeit versions of Ozempic being sold online.

How To Identify Counterfeit Ozempic Pens?

Counterfeit products may have spelling errors, instruction leaflets not in English, unsealed packaging, changes in medicine size, shape, or appearance. These are indicators that the medicine has not been produced by the original manufacturer or is being illegally sold in the wrong market. The two products subject to this alert both appear to be relabelled insulin pens. The end cap is blue (not grey), the dosage barrel is in a different place, the sticker is not adhering properly to the pen and the rendering of the packaging is poor quality.