The NHS chief executive has warned social media firms to “step up to the mark” over the promotion of a dangerous “hourglass figure” supplement on websites like Instagram.

Amanda Pritchard told The Telegraph that web giants must take “concrete action” against the promotion of products such as Apetamin, an unlicensed drug touted as a quick way to gain weight.

Her intervention came after this newspaper identified examples of the product being promoted on dedicated Instagram accounts last week – eight months after the NHS called for the website to “swiftly” block accounts set up to promote and sell Apetamin. The accounts were removed only after The Telegraph questioned Instagram about their posts. Meta, the company behind Instagram, insisted that it was “constantly working to get better at detection” and said it was “in ongoing discussions with the NHS”.

The NHS is concerned that products such as Apetamin cause “serious harm” to physical and mental health, at a time when a record number of children and teenagers are already being treated for mental health problems.

It has warned that the drug is “predominantly targeted at younger women and girls” seeking to develop an extreme hourglass figure like that of Kim Kardashian.

Tech firms should “adopt carers’ golden rule to ‘do no harm'”

Its intervention comes after Luke Evans, a Conservative member of the Commons health committee and former GP, warned MPs that one in five adults now feel “shame about their body”, with the proportion rising to almost one in three among teenagers.

Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s national mental health director, who had been leading the health service’s work on tackling the promotion of drugs such as Apetamin, said: “Tech firms hold huge sway over young people’s lives, and would do well to adopt the carers’ golden rule to ‘do no harm’.

“Dangerous products like Apetamin cause serious harm to our young people’s physical and mental health.

“We have heard lots of talk from the big companies but their actions to date are simply not enough – in just three clicks young people can still access accounts pushing substances and lifestyle products which may immediately harm the body and over time have a major impact on the mind, through devastating self-esteem and draining self-worth.”

Ms Pritchard added: “NHS mental health services are treating record numbers of children and young people and doing so during a pandemic, but it is time that others stepped up to the mark and took concrete action against products which are clearly harmful.”

Last week Instagram accounts advertising Apetamin included one that included slogans such as “let’s get thick”, and posted: “Not 40 minutes into the restock and I’m almost sold out.”

Another promoted the drug as a way to “get weight fast”, with a telephone number for those wishing to buy the substance, which can cause fatigue, jaundice and liver failure.

Girls as young as 12 taking drug 

Previous investigations have revealed that the unlicensed drug is being marketed by influencers as a means of achieving a curvy figure.

A letter from Ms Murdoch, Professor Stephen Powis, the NHS’s national medical director, and the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation, last year stated that the drug could result in “serious harm”.

The popularity of Apetamin has been linked to the vogue for so-called hourglass figures promoted by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian.

Girls as young as 12 have reportedly taken the appetite stimulant, which causes extreme drowsiness in some who take it.

A spokesman for Meta, the company behind Instagram, said: “Buying and selling illegal or prescription drugs is strictly against our policies. We remove accounts that sell Apetamin when we become aware of them and block related hashtags so this content is harder to find.

“We’re constantly working to get better at detection, and have recently started directing people who search for drug-related content on Instagram to Talk to Frank, an organisation that provides honest information about drugs.

“We continue to work with law enforcement and youth organisations to help keep drug sales of any kind off Instagram, and we’re in ongoing discussions with the NHS.”