AusChems sold a chemical reagent ‘intended for laboratory use’ to a transgender woman who used it to end her life

A laboratory reagents supplier has been questioned as part of an inquest into the suicides of five trans women as a grieving mum calls for an ACCC investigation.

Multiple suicides have been linked to the use of a chemical reagent.

An Australian chemical supplier is under scrutiny after supplying chemicals to a vulnerable young person who later used them to end her life and whose death is linked to other suicides in the same period.

AusChems, a nation-leading supplier of laboratory reagents, sold a chemical reagent “intended for laboratory use” to a 25-year-old transgender woman who used it to end her life in March 2021.

Investigations reveal her two friends, aged 19 and 20, died of the same medical cause within the following two months.

AusChems stands accused of failing to have in place necessary safeguards to ensure their products weren’t ending up in the wrong hands.

A Herald Sun investigation can reveal the company has been secretly questioned as part of a coronial inquest into the suicides of five trans women.

The product and cause of the women’s deaths is not being identified by the Herald Sun for public safety reasons.

Rachel Byrne, the mother of one of the women, found a receipt for the AusChems product sold to her daughter two weeks prior to her suicide.

She said her family’s grief is relentless and that AusChems should be held responsible for its lack of consumer safeguarding.

“They do not ask what the purpose of the purchases are. No safeguarding steps were in place to protect my daughter and others like her,” she said.

“The company, like several others, work on the premise of ‘don’t ask so don’t know’.”

A screenshot of the AusChems website, which was closed after questions were put to the chemical supplier by the Herald Sun.

The revelations follow a move by the Coroners Court to expand its inquest after the Herald Sun last week revealed Ms Byrne’s daughter was mutilated in a backyard operation by an unlicensed “surgeon” who has never faced consequence.

AusChems’ primary customers are universities, schools and scientific industries.

AusChems director Jared Smith told the Herald Sun he did not know the chemical in question could be misused as a suicide agent.

He shut down the company’s website the day he was contacted by the Herald Sun.

“The only real way to prevent this from happening again is to shut down our company as I never want this to happen to someone else again,” Mr Smith said.

The director defended the chemical supplier’s processes when privately quizzed by Coroners Court Judge Ingrid Giles.

“AusChems only sells lab reagents to account customers … personal information is collected such as business name, contact name and address, phone number,” Mr Smith said.

Ms Byrne said that system was inadequate, allowing the public easy access to deadly drugs and that the company should be investigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), responsible for product safety.

“Families that have lost a loved one through the unregulated (sale) of this known suicide drug should be able to see that AusChems, and others like AusChems, have been held accountable and that others will no longer be able to make these purchases,” she said.

In 2022, the Therapeutic Goods Administration reclassified the drug to ensure access was limited to specialised or authorised users who had the skills to handle it safely.

The ACCC described the woman’s suicide as tragic but declined to comment on a potential investigation.

“The ACCC will monitor compliance complaints and assess the suitability of product safety regulation as part of its ongoing standard review program,” the consumer watchdog said.

Mr Smith said he had only been contacted by police about his company’s involvement in suicide of Ms Byrne’s daughter, and not her two friends.