Eli Lilly Sues Sellers of Black Market Weight-Loss Drugs — Update
By Katherine Hamilton
Eli Lilly has filed six new lawsuits against U.S. entities that it alleges are selling a version of the company's investigational weight-loss drug on the black market.
The pharmaceutical conglomerate is claiming the entities sell retatrutide, a GLP-1 drug that is still in trials and not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Lilly's lawsuits involve entities known as Aesthetic Envy, Astra Peptides, Legendary Peptides, Striker Pharmacy, Texas Peptides and Lone Star Peptide. They are filed in courts in California and Texas.
The black-market companies call themselves "medical spas" and "wellness clinics," and they offer the unapproved products as a weight-loss hack, Lilly said. The entities also claim the drugs are for research-use only, when they are actually intended for human consumption, the company said.
Lilly has also referred the bad actors to regulators and law enforcement, and is calling on social media platforms and payment processors to help stop black market sales of the drug.
The FDA has said retatrutide cannot legally be compounded or sold, and that selling unapproved drugs can pose significant risks for patients.
The agency has sent at least 16 warning letters to companies about retatrutide, according to its website. It has warned outsourcing facilities for repackaging the drug, telehealth companies for marketing the unapproved drug to consumers, and distributors for selling retatrutide to compounders.
In July, Lilly said it was preparing application materials for retatrutide to treat obesity, knee osteoarthritis pain and sleep apnea, following data from two Phase 3 trials. It plans to submit the drug as a biologic for U.S. approval in the first quarter of 2027.
During studies, overweight or obese patients with type 2 diabetes lost an average of nearly 13% of their body weight after 80 weeks using a four-milligram dose. The treatment has also been shown to treat patients with severe obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Write to Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 12, 2026 07:56 ET (11:56 GMT)
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