Eli Lilly<\/a> on Wednesday said it \u200bhad filed six lawsuits \u200bagainst U.S. companies it accuses \u200bof illegally selling black-market versions of its experimental obesity drug retatrutide, escalating its campaign against unauthorized sellers before the medicine has won regulatory approval.<\/p>\nThe Indianapolis-based drugmaker said the lawsuits target a range of businesses, \u2060including \u200ccompounding pharmacies, medical spas and online sellers that allegedly marketed \u2060retatrutide products to consumers despite the drug remaining under clinical development.<\/p>\n
Retatrutide is still in Phase 3 clinical trials for obesity, type 2 diabetes and other related conditions. No regulators have approved the compound for human use, Lilly said.<\/p>\n
In \u200cJune, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated that sales of retatrutide and other unapproved versions of GLP-1 products to consumers are illegal and cannot lawfully be compounded.<\/p>\n
“What \u200bis being sold on the black market is not a medicine \u2014 it is entirely unverified, unapproved and not worth the risk,” Lilly Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Hyman said in a statement. Demand for obesity treatments has fueled a thriving \u2060online market for products claiming to contain weight-loss drugs. Some sellers have marketed retatrutide through websites, social media posts and \u200cbusinesses presenting themselves as medical providers, despite sourcing products from \u200cunregulated manufacturers, Lilly said.<\/p>\n
The company said it has referred more than 200 individuals and entities to the FDA, the U.S. Justice Department, state attorneys general, law enforcement agencies and professional licensing boards.<\/p>\n
In addition to the lawsuits, \u2060Lilly called on social media and e-commerce platforms, payment processors, credit card companies, shipping firms \u2060and regulators to take stronger action against sellers of unapproved retatrutide products.<\/p>\n
U.S. \u2060Customs and Border Protection told Reuters the agency intercepted over 690 shipments – totaling more than 31,000 units \u2014 of illicit GLP-1 drugs during fiscal year \u200b2025. In the month of July, those figures \u200cmore than doubled, with over 1,400 seizures and nearly 90,000 vials intercepted.<\/p>\n
“Every single time that someone takes one of these, they’re exposing themselves to a huge amount of risk,” said Lilly’s Dr. Max Denning, Associate Vice President, Therapeutic Area Lead \u2014 Global Patient Safety, Cardiometabolic Health.<\/p>\n
The six lawsuits were filed against Aesthetic Envy \u200bCosmetic Centers, Astra, Legendary Peptides, Striker \u200cPharmacy, Texas Peptides and Lone Star Peptide, according to Lilly. \u200b<\/p>\n
Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eli Lilly and Company\u2019s logo is displayed during a press conference in Houston, Texas, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":906028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4316],"tags":[24576,51,3085,102752,105,20944,4348,311217,3081,19905,4326,5489,16,15],"class_list":["post-1144361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-biotech-and-pharmaceuticals","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-eli-lilly-and-co","tag-health","tag-health-care-industry","tag-healthcare","tag-industrial-select-sector-spdr-fund","tag-laws","tag-lawsuits","tag-medication","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117082513960847638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1144361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1144361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1144361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1144361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}