When GLP-1 drugs for diabetes and weight loss , exploded onto the scene two years ago, patients scrambled to get their hands on them. GLP-1s, which include Ozempic , Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound, are so popular that it didn’t take long for them to wind up in short supply. According to one recent survey conducted by KFF Health Tracking, as many as one in eight adults has now used a GLP-1.
The demand shows no signs of slowing down, and as a result, counterfeit GLP-1 drugs are becoming an increasingly bigger piece of the landscape—so big in fact, that the World Health Organization (WHO) last week issued a warning to people to be wary of the fake versions. Alongside the warning, drug makers Eli Lily and Novo Nordisk have filed lawsuits against several entities to stop selling the counterfeits. “As soon as these drugs hit the market, the demand was so high that pharmacies began running out of them,” says Dr.
Supriya Rao of Integrated Gastroenterology Consultants in Mass. “So med spas and compounding pharmacies began filling that gap for patients.” A compounding pharmacy creates medicines using base ingredients, rather than dispensing the name-brand medications like Ozempic and Wegovy .
Med spas, many online sources, and compounding pharmacies do not fall under the umbrella of FDA regulation, so there are no safeguards on what a patient might receive from one of these sources. “Compounded medications are essentially ‘copies’ of available medications, but they do .
