Two Indian nationals charged with smuggling counterfeit Ozempic from China: DOJ

• Two Indian nationals were charged in Florida federal court with allegedly smuggling counterfeit Ozempic from China, the DOJ said.
• The scheme purportedly continued even after the FDA seized some of the fake weight-loss drugs in 2023 and warned the public about it.
• Swapnadip Roy was extradited from Italy and made his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, in the case. Roy is charged with Vicky Ramancha.

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Two Indian nationals have been charged in federal court in Florida with an alleged conspiracy to smuggle counterfeit Ozempic from China in a scheme that purportedly continued even after the Food and Drug Administration seized some of the fake weight-loss drugs in 2023 and warned the public about it, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

One of the men, 33-year-old Swapnadip Roy, was extradited from Italy and made his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday.

Roy and his alleged co-conspirator, Vicky Ramancha, 37,are charged in an indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit smuggling and to defraud the U.S., three counts of smuggling, and two counts of selling counterfeit drugs and holding counterfeit drugs for sale.If convicted, they both face a maximum sentence of 71 years in prison.

Ramancha remains at large.

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Court documents state Roy and Ramancha, starting in July 2023 and continuing to the following April, allegedly obtained counterfeit Ozempic from unauthorized sources in China. The popular drug is made by Novo, which recently rebranded from its name Novo Nordisk.

The material they and their co-conspirators allegedly distributed "included counterfeit packaging, package inserts, pen labels, and needles meant to deceive downstream customers into believing they were purchasing authentic Ozempic authorized by the manufacturer," DOJ said.

The newly unsealed indictment says that in July 2023, Ramancha executed a sales and purchase agreement with an unidentified company in Lakeland, Florida, agreeing to supply that company with a product described as being Ozempic "at deeply discounted pricing."

A month later, Ramancha executed another agreement with a company in Sanford, Florida, to supply it with a product described as "Ozempic syringes" at deeply discounted pricing, the indictment alleges.

in November 2023, "Roy utilized threats to facilitate the distribution of product in the United States," writing, "Listen i am not your friend okay? I am not that guy," the indictment alleges.

Roy continued, "I am the guy that will cut some one [expletive] head off and [expletive] peoples dead wives corpse with it," the indictment alleges. "You [expletive] up Solve the [expletive] problem. Get the truck over there today."

After Roy and Ramancha learned that the FDA had seized some of their product that they had distributed in the U.S., a co-conspirator asked Ramancha whether the related FDA warning would affect a pending order to 60,000 additional units of Ozempic, the indictment says.

"Ramancha replied, 'Not at all. But you have to make sure your client are not being idiotic,'" the indictment alleges.

The case comes as the use of so-called GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic for weight loss has become increasingly popular in the U.S.

In July, Gallup reported that the percentage of U.S. adults who take GLP-1 medications for weight loss purposes rose to 11% in 2026, compared to 3% in 2024.

"And 15% report having used the medicine for weight loss at some point, an increase of nine percentage points" over 2024, Gallup noted.

"Counterfeit prescription drugs — especially common ones — threaten the health and safety of every American who depends on the integrity of our pharmaceutical supply," Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the DOJ's Criminal Division said in a statement Tuesday.

"These defendants allegedly exploited people's health to pay themselves. We will keep pursuing anyone who seeks to deceive American consumers with counterfeit drugs," Duva said.

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