November 10, 2025: FDA cracks down on sites supplying unapproved "Botox"
Major stories
The FDA warned websites in five countries to stop selling Americans unapproved cosmetic injections. A Safe Chain Solutions defendant received an eight-year sentence.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued 18 warning letters to web-based businesses in China, the Netherlands, Panama, South Korea, and the U.S. for illegal sales of non-FDA-unapproved botulinum toxin “Botox” products. Unregulated versions of the injectable have been linked to cases of botulism in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Australia since April 2024.
Law360 reports that Adam Brosius, co-owner of Safe Chain Solutions and owner of Worldwide Pharma, received an eight year federal prison sentence on November 7. He will also pay more than $60.6 million in restitution. Brosius and his co-conspirators, Charles and Patrick Boyd, were part of a network that sold tens of thousands of bottles of secondhand HIV medicines with false documentation to licensed U.S. pharmacies in 2020 and 2021.
In 2024 fake Botox sent at least 13 U.S. residents to the hospital. Learn more.
Domestic News
An Iowa pharmacy has settled a lawsuit over the sale of fake Ozempic. Pill press seizures in Georgia and New York.
Washington, Iowa-based SmartScripts agreed to pay $132,000 to settle charges that it sold 15 cases of counterfeit Ozempic to Central Pharmacy Management, in Lansing, Michigan, in December 2023. The Iowa Board of Pharmacy fined SmartScripts $25,000 and placed its license on probation for five years in August 2025. The pharmacy claimed that it did not know the product was counterfeit at the time of sale.
The DeKalb County Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration dismantled a pill press operation in Stone Mountain, Georgia, seizing 48 pounds of methamphetamine pills, powder, and two pill press machines.
Law enforcement in New York City and Long Island seized fentanyl and other narcotics, as well as cash, guns, ammunition and pill press machines during the bust of a drug trafficking ring.
The National Association of State Controlled Substance Authorities (NASCSA) passed a resolution to support the Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act of 2025. The legislation, which is named for two young victims of counterfeit prescription pills distributed on Snapchat, would require online platforms to report controlled substance violations on their sites to the Attorney General.
Regulators protecting patients in the news
The FDA warned manufacturing facilities in Raleigh, North Carolina; Waunakee, Wisconsin; Macomb, Michigan; and Toronto, Ontario over violations of Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations. The Canadian company recalled ophthalmic products and an anti-seizure medicine at the end of May 2025, after FDA’s April 28 to May 9 inspection of the premises.
The agency also sent a letter to a fake online pharmacy selling unapproved, misbranded opioids, benzodiazepines, and stimulants.
The FDA warned this website to stop selling Americans unapproved controlled prescription drugs on October 15, 2025
Legislative updates
Representatives Hageman and Stansbury reintroduced the Fight Illicit Pill Presses Act, legislation which would require pill presses, punches, and dies to carry serial numbers to the U.S. House of Representatives.
International News
Health Canada seized unapproved medicines in British Columbia. Counterfeit Keytruda in the Philippines.
Unapproved medicines Health Canada seized from a wellness business in October 2025.
Health Canada raided a wellness business in Kelowna, British Columbia on October 30, 2025 seizing unapproved antibiotics, anti-parasite treatments such as ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, testosterone, and prescription-strength vitamin D. The agency warned Canadians that the unapproved medicines had not been assessed for safety, efficacy. and quality and that claims that they could treat serious medical conditions like cancer were “unauthorized.”
A resident of Sunderland, England was hospitalized after injecting herself with purported semaglutide she acquired from a friend of a friend.
The Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines warned about a counterfeit version of the oncology drug Keytruda in circulation.