Eli Lilly’s latest weight loss drug isn’t even on the market yet – but some are selling versions of it. Now, the pharmaceutical giant is suing six companies it says are putting people in danger.
The market for Eli Lilly’s new GLP-1, retatrutide, has been booming despite it not having been approved by the Food and Drug Administration yet. Currently, retatrutide is still in its Phase 3 trials and has only been approved for use in experimental settings, but it’s already showing promising results and is widely considered more effective than the GLP-1s currently on the market for weight loss.
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But Eli Lilly says what the companies at the center of the lawsuit are selling are unknown and potentially life-threatening substances.
“We take the responsibility of evaluating the safety and efficacy of our investigational medicines seriously,” Dr. David Hyman, Eli Lilly’s chief medical officer, said in a statement. “What is being sold on the black market is not a medicine – it is entirely unverified, unapproved and not worth the risk.”
Who’s being sued
The lawsuits target compounding pharmacies, medical spas and online sellers that Eli Lilly says marketed retatrutide products to consumers illegally.
“Six lawsuits is not going to be the solution to everything, but it is a start,” Dr. Max Denning, an associate vice president at Eli Lilly, told CBS News.
According to CBS, four of the companies being sued advertise retatrutide “for research use” without a prescription: Astra Peptides, Legendary Peptides, Texas Peptides and Lone Star Peptide. Eli Lilly is also suing the California medical spa Aesthetic Envy as well as Striker Pharmacy, which the lawsuit says has made an unregulated imitation version of the experimental drug.
“Every single time that someone takes one of these, they’re exposing themselves to a huge amount of risk,” Denning said.
Lilly says it has referred those companies to federal regulators and law enforcement. In June, the FDA said compounding and/or selling unapproved versions of GLP-1s, including retatrutide, is illegal.
“Lilly is also calling on the entities that sellers use to conduct their illegal business—social media and e-commerce platforms, credit card companies, payment processors and shipping and logistics carriers—to help protect patients and fight this illicit activity,” the drugmaker said in a statement.
Lilly and other patent holder companies aren’t just warning of the dangers of unregulated drug use for altruistic reasons. U.S. patent law gives the company a set number of years to sell its product before other companies can legally offer a generic version of the drug. The goal is to recoup research and development costs and profit before cheaper generic versions hit the market.
Not waiting for weight loss
Fear No Fact.
Retatrutide is known as a “triple-agonist” hormone receptor activator that simultaneously targets GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptors.
Retatrutide trials have preliminarily found that those taking the highest dose lost an average of about 30% of their body weight, or about 85 lbs., while those on the lowest dose lost an average of 19% of their weight. Those promising results have people who are looking to shed weight fast ignoring concerns and the lack of FDA approval.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Reuters it intercepted more than 690 shipments of illicit GLP-1 drugs during fiscal year 2025 and in July, those figures more than doubled – with over 1,400 seizures.
And those looking to get their hands on retatrutide legally might not have to wait much longer. In July, Eli Lilly said it’s preparing application materials for retatrutide to not only treat obesity, but knee osteoarthritis pain and sleep apnea as well. The company says it plans to submit the drug for U.S. approval in the first quarter of 2027.
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