Eli Lilly said Wednesday it is suing six companies it says are selling versions of its experimental weight-loss drug retatrutide, escalating its response to what the company describes as a growing illicit market for the unapproved medicine.
The drugmaker said the lawsuits mark the start of a broader crackdown, even as retatrutide remains in clinical trials and has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective. Federal law prohibits the commercial sale of unapproved drugs, but Eli Lilly said telehealth firms, clinics and online peptide vendors have been offering the drug anyway as interest has surged online.
"This is a global problem and it's an enormous one", Max Denning, an associate vice president at Eli Lilly, said in an interview, calling on regulators, social media companies, payment processors and others to help stem illicit sales of retatrutide. "Six lawsuits is not going to be the solution to everything, but it is a start", he said.
Companies named in the lawsuits
Eli Lilly said the cases target several kinds of sellers. Four of the companies - Astra Peptides, Legendary Peptides, Texas Peptides and Lone Star Peptide - advertise the product "for research use" without a prescription, according to the company. Eli Lilly also sued Aesthetic Envy, a California med spa that promotes retatrutide, and Striker Pharmacy, which has made a version of the experimental drug.
Denning said the retatrutide being marketed is supplied by "overseas manufacturers."
The companies did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday, according to the report. Lone Star Peptide, Texas Peptides and Aesthetic Envy all removed webpages advertising retatrutide.
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Lilly says consumers are at risk
In the lawsuits, Eli Lilly alleges that companies claiming to sell retatrutide are endangering consumers with substances that have not been reviewed by regulators and are more likely to contain contaminants.
"Consumers are switching from Lilly's FDA-approved medicines to illegal retatrutide products, citing purported lower costs and perceived superior efficacy", the drugmaker states in its lawsuit against Striker Pharmacy. And if consumers experience bad reactions from such products, they will associate them with Eli Lilly's drug, the company claims, "poisoning the well for the future of retatrutide medicines."
Striker does not publicly disclose retatrutide as a product, but Aesthetic Envy advertises it on its website, calling it a "cutting edge therapy" that "outperforms today's leading medications."
"Aesthetic Envy fails to disclose that its retatrutide product has not been approved by the FDA or any other regulator in the world", Eli Lilly states in its lawsuit.
The company also alleges that businesses selling retatrutide "for research use only" are in practice geared toward consumers who want to inject themselves with the substance.
A sought-after drug still in trials
Eli Lilly is conducting late-stage clinical trials of retatrutide as a treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes. Results so far, the article said, have shown the drug could be more effective than the most potent weight-loss drugs already approved by the FDA. The company said last month that it plans to seek regulatory approval in early 2027.
Wall Street analysts expect retatrutide to be a blockbuster, but concerns about the illicit market have persisted. Asked last week by a financial analyst whether the company had a strategy "to protect against whatever it is that's apparently available today", an Eli Lilly executive downplayed the issue.
"I think people are eagerly awaiting authentic retatrutide to be available in the market", said Kenneth Custer, an executive vice president, according to a transcript compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Sales continue in the open
Even as Eli Lilly says it wants regulators and law enforcement to take stronger action, some sellers have continued marketing retatrutide publicly.
CBS News reported last month that convenience stores were advertising and selling vials of research-grade retatrutide. As recently as Aug. 8, two bodegas in Brooklyn were still displaying posters advertising the drug alongside other peptides. A cashier at one of the stores, Mr. Green, said they were sold out of retatrutide.
