Six companies are being sued by Eli Lilly for selling versions of its experimental weight-loss drug retatrutide, with the company saying this is just the beginning of a concerted effort to crack down on a vast illicit market, CBS News reports.
That market has boomed even though retatrutide is still being studied in clinical trials and hasn’t been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective.
Federal law prohibits the commercial sale of unapproved drugs, but various telehealth firms, clinics and peptide vendors online have decided to offer the next-generation drug anyway, as promising results from Eli Lilly’s trials have fuelled a craze for it on social media.
“This is a global problem and an enormous one,” Max Denning, an associate vice-president at Eli Lilly, said, calling on regulators, social media companies, payment processors and others to help stem illicit sales of retatrutide.
“Six lawsuits is not going to be the solution to everything, but it is a start,” he added
The lawsuits Eli Lilly announced target a variety of companies that market retatrutide, which Denning said is being supplied by “overseas manufacturers”.
Four of the firms advertise the product “for research use” without a prescription: Astra Peptides, Legendary Peptides, Texas Peptides and Lone Star Peptide.
Eli Lilly is also suing Aesthetic Envy, a California med spa that promotes retatrutide, and Striker Pharmacy, which has made a version of the experimental drug. Striker is one of several compounding pharmacies that have made imitation retatrutide identified by CBS News in an investigation several months ago.
The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
CBS News reported last month that even convenience stores were advertising and selling vials of research-grade retatrutide.
Most potent yet
Eli Lilly is running late-stage clinical trials to study retatrutide as a treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes, and results so far have shown that it could be more effective than the most potent weight-loss drugs that have been approved by the FDA. It said last month that it plans to seek regulatory approval for the drug in early 2027.
In its lawsuits, it alleges that companies claiming to sell retatrutide are endangering consumers with substances that haven’t been vetted by regulators and are more likely to contain contaminants. Such products also threaten Eli Lilly, the company says.
“Consumers are switching from Lilly's FDA-approved medicines to illegal retatrutide products, citing purported lower costs and perceived superior efficacy,” the company said.
It also alleges that companies marketing retatrutide “for research use only” are actually tailored to consumers who want to inject themselves with the product.
While Eli Lilly is hoping that regulators and law enforcement will take more action against companies claiming to sell retatrutide, some are increasingly doing so in the open, with apparently few if any consequences.
Reuters reports that the company has referred more than 200 individuals and entities to the FDA, the US Justice Department, state Attorneys-General, law enforcement agencies and professional licensing boards.
US Customs and Border Protection said the agency intercepted nearly 700 shipments – totalling more than 31 000 units – of illicit GLP-1 drugs during fiscal year 2025.
In the month of July 2026, those figures more than doubled, with more than 1 400 seizures and nearly 90 000 vials intercepted.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SA regulators battle to stem tide of illicit weight loss jabs
Global race heats up for weight-loss drug pill
Donald Trump rumoured to be on experimental obesity drug
Public health threat as South Africa battles illegal weight loss drugs