The value of irregular weight-loss pens seized by the Receita Federal, Brazil's federal tax and customs authority, jumped from R$ 4 million to more than R$ 80 million in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, an increase of more than 20-fold. The figures were presented on Thursday (27) in Brasília at the Mercado Ilegal (Illegal Market) seminar, hosted by the newspapers O Globo, Valor Econômico and Extra and the radio station CBN, according to Folha de S.Paulo.

One caveat matters: the Receita did not say how many units that value represents. The total refers to medicines with no registration or sales authorization from Anvisa, the national health regulator, which makes their entry into Brazil illegal.

Regional data help size the phenomenon. According to CNN Brasil, at the Paraguay border in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, alone, 76,112 pens and ampoules of semaglutide and tirzepatide were seized in the first half of the year, against 24,994 in all of 2025. The record came in June, with 25,828 items. The price gap explains part of the flow: a tirzepatide ampoule costs about R$ 340 in Paraguay, while Mounjaro, the version authorized in Brazil, starts at R$ 1,400.

Hidden in sneakers and shampoo bottles

According to the Receita, the medicines arrive hidden inside shampoo bottles, sneaker soles and hollow spaces in vehicle bodies, often without the refrigeration needed to keep the product stable. Tax auditor Flávio Bernardino de Carvalho describes a scattered flow that mixes organized crime with people acting alone:

"Scheduled buses, cars, marketplace company trucks, tourists. It comes in every possible way. There is organized crime and there are individuals on their own. It is very scattered."

Also according to the auditor, interviewed by CNN Brasil, weight-loss drugs are now the second-largest category in seizure value in the fiscal region covering Paraná and Santa Catarina, behind only cell phones. The Receita has also identified an expansion of irregular supply on marketplace platforms. For Erivelto Moysés Torrico Alencar, deputy regional superintendent of the 1st Fiscal Region, the size of this trade shows flaws in the platforms' control over sellers and advertised products.

On the demand side, a survey by Serasa Experian shows that online orders of GLP-1 medicines, the class widely used for weight loss, grew 149.3% in the first half of 2026, from 547,249 to 1,364,354 requests totaling more than R$ 2.3 billion. A study by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), published in the journal Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, recorded rising searches for products without sanitary registration, such as TG, Tirzec, Lipoless and retatrutide. Auditor Flávio Bernardino notes that a possible future patent break on tirzepatide could reduce interest in the Paraguayan product, as happened with other medicines, but that remains a hypothesis, not a confirmed fact.

For consumers, the practical guidance is straightforward: buy these medicines only at licensed pharmacies with a medical prescription, check the product's registration on Anvisa's website, and be suspicious of prices far below the market or sales through social media and marketplaces. Products transported without refrigeration can lose effectiveness and pose health risks. It is worth remembering that medicine smuggling is a crime against public health under article 273 of the Brazilian Penal Code, punishable by 10 to 15 years in prison.