In short:

Senior doctors at a Melbourne hospital are warning people not to take counterfeit weight-loss drugs labelled as “retatrutide” after seeing multiple cases of life-threatening illness.

Among them is a woman who found herself in acute liver failure within a week of her second dose of the drug, who has ongoing health issues six months later.

The US developers of the drug called retratrutide say it is still in a clinical testing phase, and that anyone purchasing products sold under its name is getting an untested and unregulated medication.