Insulin syringe sales climb in Iceland as unregulated peptides spread

Insulin syringe sales have risen clearly in Iceland, a major pharmacy chain and a medical wholesaler told the public broadcaster RÚV on October 24. RÚV reported that the syringes can be used to inject peptides bought outside the legal supply chain, though nobody can say how many buyers use them that way. The report follows a written answer from the health minister that Iceland has no data on peptide use, and customs tests showing that seized vials often did not hold what their labels claimed.

What a pharmacy chain and a wholesaler reported

Karen Ósk Gylfadóttir, managing director of the pharmacy chain Lyfja, told RÚV that sales and demand have kept rising since the spring. At that time, RÚV had reported that Lyfja staff saw more people asking for syringes, and some customers even asked how best to inject peptides. She declined to say how large the increase has been, but called it obvious and significant. Stefán Þór Arnarsson, deputy chief executive of Fastus, which supplies insulin syringes wholesale to pharmacy chains and health institutions, said his company has also seen demand grow over the past two years. He described the rise as considerable and said it has been most visible during the last twelve months.

Both executives told RÚV that it is hard to say what drives the rise or why any one customer buys the product. Gylfadóttir said pharmacists have noticed a broader group of customers buying syringes than before. Arnarsson pointed out that the same syringes are used to give many other medicines, not only insulin. Lyfja said it wants people to choose products carefully and to use medicines for their intended purpose together with a doctor. The English language outlet Iceland Review, which followed up the RÚV report, stressed that no national data show why the equipment is being bought. Higher insulin syringe sales alone therefore do not prove that the extra purchases are tied to peptide injections.

Unregulated peptides seized at the border

Icelandic Customs seized unregulated peptides for the first time during Operation SHIELD VI, a Europol coordinated action against illegal medicines that ran from April to November 2025 in 30 countries. Announcing the results on March 2, 2026, Customs said it had seized more than 5,000 vials covering 34 types of peptides. The products had arrived from China by post and express courier, and were linked to weight management, skin, hair and muscle building. Customs said the sellers are based in China and usually list 40 to 50 peptide types. It noted that many of the seized compounds have been tested in people only to a limited extent and that their long term effects are unknown.

Customs said it had seized more than 5,000 vials covering 34 types of peptides.

In July, Customs reported what the vials held. It took one sample from each of dozens of consignments sent by several different Chinese sellers and had them analysed at a European Union laboratory with help from Europol. According to the customs analysis results, the active ingredient on the label could not be confirmed in a large share of the samples. The samples also contained significant levels of impurities, which Customs said is common when products are made in poor conditions. It warned that using such products can cause a range of health problems, and that the risk is greater when they are injected, because injection bypasses the body's first lines of defence.

No national data on peptide use

Health minister Alma Möller gave the answer to a written question from Sigurður Helgi Pálmason, a member of parliament for the People's Party, RÚV reported on October 22. She said the health ministry holds no data on the use of illegal peptides in Iceland, and that the national medicines regulators hold none either. The Landspítali poison centre has received three calls about peptide use this year, one of them concerning a person under 18. RÚV reported that peptides are believed to be widely used in Iceland, mostly to change appearance: to lose weight, to build muscle or to tan. Most are injected under the skin, which is why insulin syringe sales are being watched as an indirect signal.

The medicines inspectorate has reported peptide sellers to the police, and some selling sites have been closed, according to the same RÚV report. Better evidence may not arrive until next year, when secondary school students taking part in the Icelandic Youth Study are due to be asked about peptide use for the first time. Until then, officials have only indirect signs to go on: seizures at the border, calls to the poison centre and the rise in syringe demand reported by pharmacies. None of these measures the number of users. Each can also move for reasons that have nothing to do with peptides, such as changes in courier routes, in customs checks or in how other injected medicines are prescribed.

Why a vial label is not proof of content

Peptides are short chains of amino acids. Many are the active ingredients of approved medicines, from insulin to modern weight management drugs, and the body makes peptides of its own. The products sold on social media and black markets are a different matter, RÚV noted in an explainer: they are not approved by any regulator, and it is unclear where or under what conditions they are made. A buyer cannot know the content, the strength or the sterility of such a vial. The Icelandic test results show that this risk is real, not theoretical. Our explainer on why BPC 157 sits outside the pharmacy traces how one popular compound ended up with no approved product at all.

Online platforms have started to act as well, and our report on TikTok peptide searches found that several named compounds now return no results. In July, Björn Rúnar Lúðvíksson, a professor of immunology at the University of Iceland, told RÚV that using peptides, or substances sold as peptides, without a doctor can be life threatening, and urged anyone who runs into problems to contact a doctor. The legitimate route to an approved peptide medicine runs through a prescription and a pharmacy. For people who inject, Iceland Review pointed to the mobile harm reduction service Frú Ragnheiður in Suðurnes, which offers clean equipment and confidential advice.

Conclusion

The rise in insulin syringe sales is a signal, not a count. Lyfja and Fastus report more demand, customs tests show that seized peptide vials often failed to match their labels, and the health minister says Iceland has no data on how many people inject such products. The first survey evidence may come next year from the youth study. Until then, the clearest facts are the laboratory findings, and they point to real risk for anyone who injects products of unknown content. This report is research news, not medical advice, under our editorial standards.