n
Around 10:30 p.m. on Friday at the end of January, David Fernando, a pharmacist, worked behind a counter in a pharmacy in São Paulo when a man approached him and flashed a gun. “He asked for money in the register and refrigerator medications,” said Fernando.
These days, São Paulo pharmacists – the largest city in Brazil – know exactly what thieves mean when they say “refrigerator drugs”.
They are after Ozempic, Wegovy and Saxenda, the injectable weight loss drugs of many coveting Brazilians, but most cannot afford, in a country obsessed with body image but where obesity is increasing.
The thief left with five boxes, each generally holds a month and costs 700 to 1,100 Brazilian reais, or about $ 120 to 190, while the average monthly income is about $ 300.
Although the armed robbery upset Mr. Fernando, 36, it was not exactly a surprise. The same pharmacy was given twice for the same drugs at the end of 2024, he said. Now a security guard is displayed outside.
Four blocks in the north, another pharmacy has taken even greater precautions after a police officer interrupted an ozempic flight In August, causing a shooting that made an older woman injured.
One recent afternoon, two armed guards stood up, one inside the front door and the other near a back room where the refrigerated weight loss drugs are preserved.
While a handful of media reports show that thieves are after ozempic elsewhere in the world – including end -of -evening burglaries in pharmacies in pharmacies Michiganand in Santiago de CompostelaSPAIN – Brazil has become a worldwide world hot spot for criminals coveting extremely popular weight loss drugs.
São Paulo, in particular, has become a link because it is by certain measures the richest city in Brazil with many rich neighborhoods where many pharmacies store drugs because enough people can afford it. And these days, thieves have few problems to find buyers on WhatsApp and Facebook.
The targeting of pharmacies has scared workers and has led some stores to reduce their supply of weight loss medication. Flights are “definitely a growing trend,” said Pedro Ivo Corêa Dos Santos, police chief of the São Paulo Criminal Investigation Department.
Pharmacies are often easy targets, added the police chief. “Many operate 24/7, storing the product in a refrigerator without real safety, only protected by the pharmacist,” he said.
An analysis of the New York Times of a database of the state of São Paulo revealed that theft of pharmacies in which Ozempic, Wegovy or Saxenda have been stolen have jumped in particular in the last three years, from A single episode recorded in 2022 – four ozempic boxes from a single pharmacy – at 18 flights in 2023 and 39 last year.
The figures are almost certainly underestimated because approximately half of the flights reported have not specified the drugs taken.
RD Saúde And Grupo DPSTwo companies that have pharmacies channels in São Paulo where many flights have taken place, refused to comment. Many independent pharmacies say they no longer keep medicines in the store.
“Whoever stores Ozempic cannot work in peace,” said Wilson Martins, director of Farma O Imperador, an independent pharmacy in western São Paulo. “People ask” Have you ozempic? ” “, He added. “No, we don’t do it. And in this way, we are not stolen.
Customers who want one of the weight loss drugs must now order it in person and make an appointment to recover it. But to make a good measure, Mr. Martins, 72, still keeps a machete caused behind the counter.
Some criminal gangs have stolen trucks who are wholesale of the Ozempique, said Corêa dos Santos. A gang that the police dismantled last year included employees of a transport company.
Drug producers and distributors must report the loss of drugs resulting from crimes or other reasons in Anvisa, the Brazilian agency that regulates food and drugs. Its figures show that 4,770 ozempic injection pens were stolen or lost in 2023 and jumped at 8,220 pens last in 2024.
The eruption of weight loss drug flights occurs in the midst of the booming sales of the drug in a country where the creation of a finely settled body is venerated and which, like many countries, is developing more.
The percentage of adults in its largest cities considered obese increased to around 24% in 2023, compared to almost 12% in 2006, according to A study by the Ministry of Health.
Several Brazilian celebrities have publicly spoken Regarding the use of ozempic or similar drugs, including the singers Luiza possibilities, Wesley Safadão and Jojo Todynho.
“The wave of thefts started when social media began to discuss drugs openly, especially since celebrities and influencers presented spectacular weight loss,” said Renata Gonçalves, head of a union Pharmacists for the state of São Paulo.
Even the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, said during his campaign in 2024 that he “had taken many ozempic” and had lost around 65 pounds, and is committed to making the drug available for free.
“Rio will be a city without a chopped people,” he said.
In Brazil, Ozempic sales increased from $ 27.5 million in 2019, to $ 621.6 million in 2023, last year for which complete figures were available, according to IQVIA, a global data supplier health care. (The Brazilian market still turns out to the United States, where sales totaled $ 30.3 billion in 2023.)
Rodrigo Lima, who works for pharmacy channels for two decades and is now operations chief for UltrafarmaA channel based in São Paulo, said that other high -cost pharmacy products had been targeted in the past.
But the high cost of Ozempic, he said, “triggered a huge demand for these articles, leading to gangs specialized in eye on this market for the market”.
Although it is fairly easy to sell and buy weight loss medication on the web, criminals may not be able to ensure buyers of the quality of drugs once they have left storage cold. Several pharmacists from São Paulo have repeatedly stressed that a few hours at room temperature makes drugs unnecessary.
“They take medication in the car in a trash bag,” said Andrea Lima, the director of a branch of the Drogaria São Paulo chain where a police officer thwarted a flight attempt last May. “How long does he leave him in the trunk?”
Ultrafarma’s strategy said Lima, to install better security cameras and reduce actions in business -owned stores.
An ultrafarma store that was stolen in 2023 went even further, said Leandro Rodrigo Santos, the store manager. He no longer maintains Ozempic in stock, therefore customers must order it and have it delivered to their homes.
But even it is risky.
Wellington Vieira, chief of a rio de Janeiro police division who is investigating consumer offenses, said the agency had received group reports that ordered several boxes of Ozempic to a home, then shoot a switcheroo .
When a childbirth worker arrives, two people respond to the door. One tries several times to pay with an unlikely credit card, while the other accepts the package and changes the real ozempic for a counterfeit version. When the purchase is finally canceled, the delivery worker returns to the pharmacy without knowing it with the false medication.
Ozempic bandits could soon face a more powerful force than the police: the economy. The Brazilian Patent of Novo Nordisk for the Sémaglutide, the active ingredient of Ozempic and Wegovy, expires in 2026, and pharmaceutical companies are underway to obtain approval to produce generic versions which will almost certainly drop prices.
For the moment, some pharmacists are turning to a higher power for protection. Elis Regina Peixoto manages a pharmacy in eastern São Paulo which has so far been unharmed. “In the name of Jesus,” she said, “we will not be stolen.”
n
n
