Two entrepreneurs have been charged in Austria for allegedly trading in counterfeit slimming injection doses.
They are accused of selling a total of 225 syringes for €205 each ($220), a spokeswoman for the regional court in the Upper Austrian town of Steyr said on Tuesday.
The trial is due to take place there on September 16.
The public prosecutor's office accuses the two men of offences against the Medicines Act and three counts of grossly negligent bodily harm following several incidents that occurred last October. The people concerned had received counterfeit versions of the diabetes injection drug Ozempic.
The drug is also very popular as a dietary supplement. The Austrian Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG) alleges that the counterfeit syringes contained insulin instead of the intended active ingredient semaglutide.
According to the indictment, the entrepreneurs obtained the counterfeits from abroad and sold them to a plastic surgeon in Salzburg, who then sold them on. The investigations into the doctor are continuing.