Round 10:30 p.m. on a Friday in late January, David Fernando, a pharmacist, was working behind a counter at a drugstore in São Paulo when a person walked as much as him and flashed a gun. “He requested for cash from the register and medicines from the fridge,” Mr. Fernando mentioned.
Nowadays, pharmacists in São Paulo — Brazil’s largest metropolis — know precisely what thieves imply once they say “medicines from the fridge.”
They’re after Ozempic, Wegovy and Saxenda, the injectable weight-loss medication many Brazilians covet however that the majority can’t afford, in a rustic obsessive about physique picture however the place weight problems is on the rise.
The thief made off with 5 containers, every of which usually holds a month’s provide and prices 700 to 1,100 Brazilian reais, or about $120 to $190, whereas the average monthly income is about $300.
Although the armed theft unnerved Mr. Fernando, 36, it was not precisely a shock. The identical pharmacy was held up for a similar medication twice in late 2024, he mentioned. Now a safety guard is posted outdoors.
4 blocks north, one other pharmacy has taken even larger precautions after a police officer interrupted an Ozempic robbery in August, leading to a shootout that left an older girl injured.
On a latest afternoon two armed guards stood watch, one contained in the entrance door and the opposite close to a again room the place the refrigerated weight-loss medication are stored.
Whereas a smattering of media reviews present thieves are after Ozempic elsewhere on this planet — together with late-night break-ins at pharmacies in Michigan, and in Santiago de Compostela, Spain — Brazil has change into a first-rate international scorching spot for criminals coveting the massively widespread weight-loss medication.
São Paulo, specifically, has change into a nexus as a result of it’s by some measures Brazil’s richest metropolis with many rich neighborhoods the place loads of pharmacies inventory the medication as a result of sufficient individuals can afford them. And nowadays thieves have little drawback discovering patrons on WhatsApp and Fb teams.
The concentrating on of pharmacies has left employees fearful and has led some shops to scale back their provide of weight-loss medication. The robberies are “undoubtedly a rising pattern,” mentioned Pedro Ivo Corrêa dos Santos, a police chief in São Paulo State’s Division of Legal Investigation.
Pharmacies are sometimes straightforward targets, the police chief added. “Many function 24/7, storing the product in a fridge with no actual safety, solely protected by the pharmacist,” he mentioned.
A New York Occasions evaluation of a São Paulo State database discovered that robberies of pharmacies during which Ozempic, Wegovy or Saxenda have been stolen jumped notably within the final three years, from a sole recorded episode in 2022 — 4 containers of Ozempic taken from a single drugstore — to 18 robberies in 2023, and 39 final yr.
The numbers are nearly definitely undercounts, since about half the reported robberies didn’t specify the medicines taken.
RD Saúde and Grupo DPS, two corporations that personal pharmacy chains in São Paulo the place most of the robberies have taken place, declined to remark. Many unbiased pharmacies say they now not maintain the medication within the retailer.
“Anybody who shares Ozempic can’t work in peace,” mentioned Wilson Martins, the supervisor of Farma O Imperador, an unbiased pharmacy in western São Paulo. “Individuals ask ‘Do you will have Ozempic?’” he added. “No, we don’t. And that approach, we don’t get robbed.”
Clients who need one of many weight-loss medication now should order it in individual and make an appointment to select it up. However for good measure, Mr. Martins, 72, nonetheless retains a leather-sheathed machete behind the counter.
Some legal gangs have been robbing vehicles making wholesale Ozempic deliveries, Mr. Corrêa dos Santos mentioned. One gang that the police dismantled final yr included staff of a transport firm.
Drug producers and distributors should report losses of medicines ensuing from crimes or different causes to Anvisa, the Brazilian company that regulates meals and medicines. Its figures present that 4,770 Ozempic injection pens have been stolen or misplaced in 2023 and surged to eight,220 pens in 2024.
The rash of robberies of weight-loss medication comes amid hovering gross sales of the treatment in a rustic the place attaining a finely tuned physique is revered and that, like many international locations, is rising fatter.
The proportion of adults in its largest cities thought of overweight elevated to about 24 p.c in 2023 from almost 12 p.c in 2006, based on a Health Ministry study.
A number of Brazilian celebrities have spoken publicly about utilizing Ozempic or related medication, together with singers Luiza Possi, Wesley Safadão and Jojo Todynho.
“The wave of thefts started when social media began brazenly discussing the drug, notably as celebrities and influencers showcased dramatic weight reduction,” mentioned Renata Gonçalves, the pinnacle of a union of pharmacists for the state of São Paulo.
Even Rio de Janeiro’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, mentioned throughout his marketing campaign in 2024 that he “took a number of Ozempic” and misplaced about 65 kilos, and pledged to make the drug obtainable at no cost.
“Rio shall be a metropolis with out chubby individuals anymore,’’ he mentioned.
In Brazil, Ozempic gross sales grew from $27.5 million in 2019, to $621.6 million in 2023, the final yr for which full figures have been obtainable, based on IQVIA, a worldwide supplier of well being care knowledge. (The Brazilian market nonetheless pales compared to america, the place gross sales totaled $30.3 billion in 2023.)
Rodrigo Lima, who has labored for pharmacy chains for 20 years and is now head of operations for Ultrafarma, a São Paulo-based chain, mentioned different high-cost pharmacy merchandise have been focused prior to now.
However the excessive price of Ozempic, he mentioned, has “sparked an enormous demand for this stuff, resulting in specialised gangs with a watch on that slice of the market.”
Whereas it’s pretty straightforward to promote and purchase stolen weight-loss medication on the net, criminals could not have the ability to guarantee patrons in regards to the high quality of the medication as soon as they’re taken out of chilly storage. A number of pharmacists in São Paulo repeatedly burdened that only a few hours at room temperature renders the medicines ineffective.
“They take the medicines out to the automobile in a trash bag,” mentioned Andrea Lima, the supervisor of a department of the Drogaria São Paulo chain the place a policeman foiled an tried theft final Could. “How lengthy do they go away it within the trunk?”
Ultrafarma’s technique, mentioned Mr. Lima, has been to put in higher safety cameras and cut back inventory in company-owned shops.
One Ultrafarma retailer that was robbed in 2023 has gone even additional, mentioned Leandro Rodrigo Santos, the shop’s supervisor. It now not retains Ozempic in inventory so prospects should order it and have it delivered to their dwelling.
However even that has dangers.
Wellington Vieira, chief of a Rio de Janeiro police division that investigates consumer-related crimes, mentioned the company had obtained reviews of teams who order a number of containers of Ozempic to a house after which pull a switcheroo.
When a supply employee arrives, two individuals reply the door. One tries a number of occasions to pay with an invalid bank card, whereas the opposite accepts the package deal and switches out the actual Ozempic for a counterfeit model. When the acquisition is ultimately canceled, the supply employee unknowingly returns to the pharmacy with the pretend treatment.
Ozempic bandits could quickly confront a power extra highly effective than the police: economics. Novo Nordisk’s Brazilian patent for semaglutide, the lively ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, expires in 2026, and pharmaceutical corporations are racing to get approval to supply generic variations that may nearly definitely trigger costs to tumble.
For now, some pharmacists are turning to a better energy for cover. Elis Regina Peixoto manages a pharmacy in japanese São Paulo that has to date gone unscathed. “Within the identify of Jesus,” she mentioned, “we is not going to be robbed.”
