Black Market Versions of Weight Loss Drug Flood Market Even as Eli Lilly Is Still Testing Efficacy, Safety

Drug maker Eli Lilly and Company says several peptides marketers are among a group of companies it is suing for selling black market versions of its next-generation weight loss drug that is still awaiting federal approval.Lilly, on Wednesday, announced it filed six lawsuits against American entities selling the unapproved drug, retatrutide, and referred more than 200 “bad actors” to regulators and law enforcement worldwide.The Indiana-based company is also calling on social media companies, e-commerce platforms, credit card companies, payment processors, and shipping and logistics carriers to block companies from using them to sell the black market drugs.“We take the responsibility of evaluating the safety and efficacy of our investigational medicines seriously. What is being sold on the black market is not a medicine – it is entirely unverified, unapproved, and not worth the risk,” Lilly’s chief medical officer, Dr. David A. Hyman, said in a release.No medicine containing retatrutide has yet been approved for human use and cannot be sold to consumers. The company plans to file for Food and Drug Administration approval next year. Currently, the FDA says retatrutide cannot be used in compounding under federal law. The federal agency has sent warning letters to telehealth companies for marketing retatrutide to consumers and warned pharmaceutical ingredient distributors not to sell retatrutide and other GLP-1 weight loss drugs to compounders.Lilly says the sale of unapproved retatrutide is an urgent public health crisis and “medical spas,” “wellness clinics,” and other retatrutide suppliers are not practicing medicine but are selling illegal drugs.Lilly’s lawsuits claim retatrutide sellers claim their drugs are for “research-use only” when they are actually intended for human use. The website for at least one of the companies facing a suit was unavailable on Wednesday.Retatrutide is in Phase III clinical trials for obesity, type-2 diabetes, and other related health issues. Lilly reported the drug helped patients lose an average of 28.7 percent of their body weight in a 2025 trial, significantly more than its popular Zepbound drug currently on the market.About one in eight adults say they are currently taking a GLP-1 drug to lose weight or treat a chronic condition, according to a health tracking poll by Kaiser Family Foundation. Investment banking and financial services provider, BMO Capital Markets, has predicted the global market for the growing and lucrative weight-loss drugs will reach $100 billion by 2035. Lilly’s GIP and GLP-1 drug, terzepatide, marketed as Zepbound, is the most popular weight loss drug on the market. Many consumers have turned to unapproved, off-brand compounded versions of weight loss drugs due to the high cost of brand-name drugs. Many insurance companies have balked at covering the drugs because of their high prices.Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk — the maker of Wegovy and Ozempic — have been lowering prices of their weight loss drugs for self-pay customers via direct sales on their websites, but treatments still cost hundreds of dollars a month.