Arabic version: سابع حالة سمّية كبدية في فيكتوريا تثير مخاوف بشأن دفعة من الببتيدات

According to ABC News, a seventh Victorian patient has been hospitalised with acute liver toxicity after using a counterfeit product labelled as the weight-loss peptide retatrutide, prompting doctors to consider whether a contaminated batch could be involved. The latest patient became seriously unwell after taking the unapproved product.

Liver transplant specialist Marie Sinclair said the recent case was similar to earlier cases, with severe liver injury occurring after a second dose of unregulated retatrutide. She said the possibility of a contaminated batch in Victoria was only a hypothesis and that there were no test results supporting it yet. Dr Sinclair has commissioned testing of counterfeit peptides used by patients with liver failure.

Dr Sinclair said affected patients developed liver injuries within a few weeks of taking black-market retatrutide. They can become jaundiced and seriously unwell. Therapeutic Goods Administration chief medical advisor Robyn Langham said the localised cluster in Victoria suggested a possible batch problem, while stressing her comments were not the result of an investigation. She said the cluster did not appear to be occurring elsewhere in Australia.

Canberra Health Services confirmed it had detected liver damage linked to products sold as retatrutide, but did not provide a number because of low case numbers. The TGA has warned that products labelled retatrutide may contain contaminants with toxic effects. Professor Langham said there were no safe or good batches of unapproved peptides, and that hospital admissions linked to such products were happening across Australia.

Retatrutide is owned by US-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and remains in clinical trials. Lilly Australia general manager Manny Simons warned that any retatrutide available online was unapproved and unverified. The TGA said it had destroyed more than 94,500 unapproved peptide products this year with Australian Border Force, and said it was particularly concerned about young people buying and injecting products promoted on social media.