SAO PAULO – When Brazilian customs agents opened jars of dulce de leche aboard a tourist bus arriving from Paraguay in April, they discovered hundreds of vials of tirzepatide, the active ingredient in the popular weight-loss drug Mounjaro, mixed inside the sweet spread.
The routine inspection turned into one of Brazil’s largest seizures of weight-loss medications, with the total shipment exceeding 2,500 vials, according to the Federal Revenue Service. But it was hardly an anomaly.
Along that border, agents are finding slimming drugs, part of a class of pharmaceuticals called GLP-1 receptor agonists, in unexpected places.
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