6 cases of liver toxicity in Victoria,Australia from Reta contaminant, and one death ?cause

[lessthanhalf]

There was an article in The Age newspaper today about 6 cases of liver toxicity caused by what is presumed to be a contaminant in Retatrutide. Not a lot of info on where it came from, picture is Utopia branding, and I think that is the source although I cannot confirm for certain it is not a stock picture.

So if anyone in Australia has Utopia branded reta do not use it

It also mentions a recent death in Victoria due to peptides that I will have to try to track down

It also mentions the TGA has instituted a crackdown on peptides sourced locally in Australia or from overseas, but not much in the way of detail. The TGA is like the local equivalent of the FDA, but peptides like Reta are listed as scheduled drugs here and there is nothing grey about their status, their import or sale without prescription and permit is illegal, though prosecution of individual buyers does not seem to be a thing.

Unfortunately this kind of thing is more or less inevitable, given the lack of testing and quality control in grey/black market peptides. I am only surprised I have not found more examples of this sort of thing, and this does seem to be a genuine case of a death from peptides from a reputable source, though I need more info. As far as I am concerned, even with these risks, I am better off using cheap Chinese GLP's, than putting back on 80 kilos with the enormous possible health risks, but for someone using them for bodybuilding cutting or non obese level weight, these risks might start to be more significant compared to the benefits. Without a lot more info there is no way to tell if this is something that could be detected by routine Jano testing or not.

health department warning

Toxicity linked to unapproved peptide product labelled Retatrutide

The department has been notified of six cases of acute liver toxicity associated with an unapproved peptide product in Australia, labelled Retatrutide.

www.health.vic.gov.au

Age article

Urgent warning as six Victorians suffer liver poisoning from illegal weight loss peptide

The Victorian Chief Health Officer said it was believed the patients became seriously unwell after using an unapproved peptide product labelled as Retatrutide.

www.theage.com.au

The Age is paywalled but should let you read 5 free articles.

 

[diplomat]

THIS is why we can't have nice things!

 

[lessthanhalf]

I found the source of the death report.

"The Coroner’s Court confirmed it was investigating a death related to the use of growth-stimulating peptides (CJC 1295 and ipamorelin) prescribed by a medical practitioner."
I would love to know the sourcing of this, and how well that source was vetted before the doctor prescribed it , and what is thought to have caused the death.

The article it is from is generally pretty alarmist in tone and headlines, but is actually medically sourced information.

I an still a bit confused as to why I am not seeing much in the way of scientific papers documenting these issues, that article alone has a significant number of serious harms and one death from peptides all occurring locally in Victoria, with a population of 7 million. No way to know numbers of peptide users in that area, tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands? Do you need to look up huge numbers of different local drug adverse reaction reports from different locations to get any idea of how common it is? There is no way accurate risks can be determined, but even a vague order of magnitude risk would be better than no idea. And it is important, if the odds of serious adverse reactions were known , it would enable more rational decisions about peptide use especially for use cases that I would see as non essential. Overall I suspect that GLP drugs from grey sources save more lives than are harmed by them, probably a lot more, but is this true for KLOW or GLOW or CJC 1295 and ipamorelin?

Amputations, heart attacks, days of vomiting: The horror toll of ‘backyard’ peptides

Victorians are taking peptides for everything from weight loss and body building to skin improvements. Many end up in hospitals with severe side effects.

www.theage.com.au

 

[kugelblitz]

Purchasing single-vial, and evidently per-reconstituted (judging by the fact that the label tells you to keep it in the fridge), not the greatest idea.

If anything, this is likely a lesson for people who want the magic weight loss juice, but can't even be bothered to learn how to reconstitute it themselves, how to find direct good reputation vendors, and how to use crypto.
If you're keen to shoot up a mystery Chinese liquid, least you can do is spend a few days learning about how to use it as safely as possible.

 

[eidos]

Too bad we don't know more about the dose, duration, and source.

When I see how some people handle their vials and how others don't know how to calculate a dose, I'm (pleasantly) surprised that there aren't more deaths.

 

[lessthanhalf]

Selling peptides in Australia is a fairly risky business with pretty high odds of being prosecuted and usually fined a lot of money, but not often more severe consequences. There really are not very many sources here and they are very expensive with single vials at kit prices. Did try to find them ( utopia ) but packaging and branding looks very different on the one website I could find with that branding, so hard to even say it is the source. I would imagine the TGA would be looking to prosecute them for sure, so they may have taken sites offline. People prepared to take that level of risk might be closer in attitude to more conventional illegal drug sellers, so may well not have especially high ethical standards, or concerns for safety.

I am constantly amazed at how rarely the peptides bought from china turn out to be fake or cause serious issues, given that there is no absolute reason forcing them to do the right thing, other than wanting return business, compared to the very complex regulatory and inspection systems for standard pharma production. And setting up some ads on tiktok or facebook , buying some empty vials and some mannitol powder and sticking it in the vials and selling that is not exactly rocket science, and would be quite cheap , just trying to work out why every second new seller is not selling sugar powder when it would be so easy, and possibly no more illegal in china than selling the peptides. Maybe 50% profit margins on the real thing with return business is a better business model than 95% short term profit on fake ones.

I will try to follow this up and see if they determine what was the cause of the toxicity and what the results of the inquest into the death are, but probably will take a long time.

 

[alphaskunk65]

The National Institute of Health and the National Library of Medicine have an overwhelming amount of research and info on these subjects. If I had the skills to forward links I would. It would be advised to have a look there, shocking read for sure.

 

[eidos]

Selling peptides in Australia is a fairly risky business

Is there business as usual not risky in the Land Down Under?

Can't you hear that thunder? You'd better run; you'd better take cover 🎶