Armed Bandits in Brazil Pursue New Loot: Ozempic
Americas|Bandits’ New Demand in Brazil: Hand Over the Ozempic!
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/15/world/americas/brazil-robbery-pharmacy-ozempic.html
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Around 10:30 p.m. on a Friday in late January, David Fernando, a pharmacist, was working behind a counter at a drugstore in São Paulo when a man walked up to him and flashed a gun. “He asked for money from the register and medications from the refrigerator,” Mr. Fernando said.
These days, pharmacists in São Paulo — Brazil’s largest city — know exactly what thieves mean when they say “medications from the refrigerator.”
They’re after Ozempic, Wegovy and Saxenda, the injectable weight-loss drugs many Brazilians covet but that most can’t afford, in a country obsessed with body image but where obesity is on the rise.
The thief made off with five boxes, each of which typically holds a month’s supply and costs 700 to 1,100 Brazilian reais, or about $120 to $190, while the average monthly income is about $300.
Though the armed robbery unnerved Mr. Fernando, 36, it was not exactly a surprise. The same pharmacy was held up for the same drugs twice in late 2024, he said. Now a security guard is posted outside.
Four blocks north, another pharmacy has taken even greater precautions after a police officer interrupted an Ozempic robbery in August, resulting in a shootout that left an older woman injured.