The dangerous weight-loss drug that went viral on Russian TikTok

Molecule pills, which promise rapid weight loss, went viral on the Russian app TikTok earlier this year.

Youth pages began filling up with comments like “Take the molecule and forget about the food,” and “Do you want to sit in the back of the class in oversized clothes?”

The clips showed refrigerators lined with blue boxes bearing 3D images and “Molecule Plus” stickers.

Orders began to pile up, with teens sharing their “weight loss journeys” on social media.

But there was a catch.

Maria, 22, had bought the pill from a popular online retailer. She took two pills a day, and after two weeks, her mouth dried out and she completely lost her appetite.

“I had absolutely no desire to eat, let alone drink. I was nervous. I was constantly biting my lip and chewing my cheek.”

Maria became extremely anxious and began having negative thoughts. “These pills had a profound effect on my psyche,” she says.

Maria, who lives in St Petersburg, says she was not prepared for such severe side effects.

Other TikTok users have reported dilated pupils, tremors, and insomnia. At least three students reportedly ended up in hospital.

In April, a schoolgirl in Chita, Siberia, required hospital care after overdosing on Molecule. According to local reports, she was trying to lose weight quickly, in time for the summer.

The mother of another student told local media that her daughter was admitted to intensive care after taking several pills at the same time.

In May, a 13-year-old boy from St. Petersburg required hospital care after suffering hallucinations and panic attacks. He reportedly asked a friend to buy him birth control pills because he was being bullied at school about his weight.

Molecule pill packaging often contains “natural ingredients” such as chicory root and fennel seed extract.

But earlier this year, journalists at the Russian newspaper Izvestia submitted pills they had bought online for testing and found they contained a substance called sibutramine.

First used as an antidepressant in the 1980s and then as an appetite suppressant, studies later found that sibutramine increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes — while only slightly promoting weight loss.

It was banned in the US in 2010, which it is Illegal in the UKThe European Union, China and other countries.

In Russia, it is still used to treat obesity, but is only available to adults and by prescription.

It is a criminal offense to buy and sell sibutramine without a prescription. But that hasn’t stopped individuals and small businesses from selling it online – often in higher doses than legal drugs – and without the need for prescriptions.

Unlicensed pills cost around £6 to £7 ($8 to $9) for 20 days – much cheaper than established weight-loss injections such as Ozempic, which are sold on the Russian market for £40 to £160 ($50 to $210) for a monthly pen.

“Self-administration of this drug is absolutely unsafe,” says Ksenia Solovieva, an endocrinologist from St. Petersburg, warning of the dangers of a possible overdose, “because we do not know how much of the active ingredient such ‘dietary supplements’ may contain.”

Russians regularly receive prison sentences for buying and reselling Molecule pills. But it is difficult for the authorities to control drugs that are sold illegally.

In April, the government-backed Safer Internet Association reported to authorities about the growing trend involving young people – prompting several major online marketplaces to remove Molecule from sale. But it soon began appearing online under a new name, Atom, in near-identical packaging.

A law was recently passed that allows authorities to block websites selling “unregistered nutritional supplements” without a court order – but sellers are getting around this by labeling them as “sports nutrition” instead.

On TikTok, you can find retailers selling Molecule under listings that appear to be for muesli, cookies, and even light bulbs. And some retailers aren’t trying to hide it anymore.

A few weeks ago, the BBC found listings for Molecule on a popular Russian online marketplace. When contacted for comment, the site said it had immediately removed any products containing sibutramine. But she acknowledged the difficulty of finding and removing listings that did not explicitly mention sibutramine.

If you do manage to get Molecule, it’s hard to know exactly what you’re getting, and it’s unclear where the pills are made.

The BBC found some sellers holding production certificates from factories in Guangzhou and Henan in China. Others claim to get the grains from Germany.

Some packages state that it was produced by Remagen in Germany – but the BBC discovered no such company listed at the address given.

Some Kazakh vendors selling Molekule to Russians told the BBC they had bought stock from friends or from warehouses in the capital, Astana, but were unable to name the original supplier.

• Details of support with eating disorders in the UK are available at BBC action line

Meanwhile, online eating disorder communities have become spaces where Molecule is promoted, with users relying on hashtags and coded terms to bypass moderation.

Ms Solovieva says the molecule is particularly harmful when taken by young people who already suffer from eating disorders. For those experiencing or near relapse, readily available appetite suppressants can be very dangerous, she says.

Anna Enina, a Russian influencer with millions of followers who herself admitted to using unlicensed weight-loss pills in the past, publicly warned her subscribers: “As someone with an eating disorder… the consequences will be dire. You will regret it tenfold.”

Maria, 22, has suffered bad side effects and is one of those she regrets. After taking too many Molecule pills, she was sent to the hospital.

She now discourages other young women and girls from taking the pill on weight loss forums. It even reached out to the parents of one of the teenage users to alert them.

But Molecule is still very popular on the Internet.

And every video that appears on Mariah’s TikTok feed is a reminder of the pills that made her sick.