Eli Lilly said Wednesday it filed six lawsuits targeting wellness vendors who it said are selling illegal versions of its experimental weight-loss drug, retatrutide, in a bid to stem a flood of illicit online sales.
The pharmaceutical company is conducting clinical trials and is expected to submit retatrutide to the Food and Drug Administration for approval by the end of the year. The earliest it could come on the market would be 2027.
But that has not stopped websites and med spas hawking weight-loss treatments from selling purported copies of the investigational therapy. Retatrutide is highly anticipated because studies so far have shown it is more potent than other GLP-1 drugs.
Tapping into the hype, online sellers are attempting to exploit a loophole in federal regulations that allow sales of experimental compounds for research use only.
Eli Lilly and the FDA have warned compounding pharmacies, wellness centers, online vendors and consumers that these practices violate federal law and are dangerous. The drugs are typically manufactured overseas in factories that have not been licensed or inspected by U.S. regulators, and their ingredients have not been verified.
“It’s a widespread problem,” said Max Denning, Eli Lilly’s associate vice president for global patient safety. Consumers are taking serious risks with their health by purchasing the bootleg retatrutide from “an unknown, untrusted source,” he said.
The lawsuits filed in federal court in California and Texas target Aesthetic Envy Cosmetic Centers, Astra Peptides, Legendary Peptides, Striker Pharmacy, Texas Peptides and Lone Star Peptide, according to an Eli Lilly news release. Eli Lilly said the lawsuits allege the companies falsely claim the drugs are for research purposes only when in fact they are intended for consumer use.
The companies did not immediately respond Wednesday morning to requests for comment made through their email addresses and online contact portals.
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