The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), dependent on the Ministry of Health, has ordered the marketing ban and withdrawal from the market of all copies of the food supplement “Juliet L-Carnitine Lepidum Capsules” for contain sibutramine. , an active ingredient used for weight loss and banned in 2010because its consumption is associated with serious cardiovascular adverse effects.
Sibutramine is an anorexic active ingredient (appetite suppressant) which provides a feeling of satiety and also produces an increase in caloric expenditure. Additionally, sibutramine causes an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, which may cause arrhythmias, ischemic heart disease and stroke severe in some patients. Other side effects that may occur while consuming it are dry mouth, headache, insomnia, constipation, etc. Additionally, it has a large number of interactions with other drugs.
The withdrawal comes after the alert of the command of the Civil Guard of Ceuta and the customs surveillance service of Ceuta. According to the analysis carried out by the official control laboratory of the AEMPSthe abovementioned product contains the active substance sibutramine in sufficient quantity to restore, correct or modify a physiological function by exerting a pharmacological action, which gives it the legal status of a medicine.
“This substance is not declared on its labeling, which misleadingly indicates a series of ingredients of plant origin, give false information on its safety and could cause serious damage to the health of people who consume it,” they warn.
