Friday 27/June/2025 – 03:38 PM
In light of the high prices of approved obesity drugs and insurance coverage restrictions, an increasing number of Americans tends to buy unlicensed cocktails to lose weight from what is known as the gray market, which is an illegal but widespread market, according to Reuters.
Americans resort to a gray market for slimming drugs
Among them, Emmy Spencer, a 50 -year -old woman and a mother of two children from Missouri, who injects herself weekly with weight loss drugs that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved, including vehicles containing Terzopatid, which is the active substance in Zepbound of Eli Lily.
Although Spencer does not participate in any official clinical trial, it is its own small doses that they believe are safe, and buy these materials from Chinese sources over the Internet, at a monthly cost not exceeding 50 dollars only, that is, much lower than the official price of the approved drugs.
Reports indicate that these drugs are charged by China under a classification for research purposes, raising concerns about their safety. These drugs belong to the GLP-1 drug category, which is commonly used to treat obesity and diabetes.
Companies such as Eli Lily and Nofu Nordis, manufacturer of Wegovy, warned of the danger of these practices, noting that the use of such unlicensed formulations may expose users to severe health risks.
According to an investigation by Reuters, many people, from different professional backgrounds, including lawyers, nurses and diabetic patients, are dependent on this gray market because of the low prices and ease of access, compared to official drugs.
It is worth noting that the US Food and Drug Administration had issued a decision last year to prevent compound pharmacies inside the United States from selling alternative copies of obesity drugs that suffer from a lack of markets, which prompted many consumers to resort to unofficial sources outside the country.
