A drug that has not been approved by the FDA but is still in clinical trials is being advertised online. It turns out that buying it is very easy.
First, CBS News national correspondent Adam Yamaguchi ordered 20 mg online from Reset Wellness, a clinic run by licensed nurse practitioners. retarglutide. The weight-loss drug, called Reta, is an experimental peptide drug that Eli Lilly is studying as a next-generation obesity treatment. At checkout he was promised a health assessment, but the product arrived a week later without speaking to a health professional.
Next, after confirming that he met the body mass index (BMI) requirements, he purchased Reta from the website of the Bodystreet Jupiter gym in Florida. Doctors will review his admission form, the website said. Two days later the product arrived without consultation.
He even found a poster advertising the product on the counter of a Brooklyn grocery store.
Yamaguchi bought a small bottle labeled “Retatrutide” at a corner store for $90. It has a warning on the label that says “For research use only and not for human consumption.“
Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a Yale University physician who has studied the growing use of peptides and weight-loss drugs, said it was “shocking” how readily available they are. People who try products labeled as retarglutide are essentially serving as guinea pigs, she said, because the drug is still in clinical trials and has not yet been proven safe and effective.
Prescribing medications should discuss the patient’s medical history, risks and whether treatment is appropriate, she said.
What’s in the bottle?
University of Iowa research scientist Jason Galpin analyzed the samples for CBS News.
Both samples Yamaguchi purchased online were consistent with the basic standards Galpin created for retarglutide, which may be different from the drug being studied in Eli Lilly’s clinical trials.
But the winery samples seemed to contain no peptides at all.
“It didn’t look like a peptide at all,” Galpin said of the sample Yamaguchi bought at a Brooklyn corner store, labeled “Reta.”
Instead, Galpin discovered a compound called phenylacetic acid, which he described as a filler. It is commonly found in perfumes and lip balms.
Carl Ross, director of development at the University of Iowa’s Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing, conducted further testing and found 13 bacterial colonies present in the sample.
He warned that injecting materials contaminated with bacteria could lead to infection.
“As kids, we’re all taught to clean the cut if we get a cut, but in this case … we’re injecting bacteria under the skin where the bacteria can multiply,” Ross said. “It’s really scary.”
Ramachandran shares the same concerns.
“The scary thing is that people who buy this, spend money on this, could get seriously ill,” she said.
Ramachandran said that as access to unapproved drugs continues to grow, she hopes regulators will find ways to oversee these platforms.
“I hope there will be a way to regulate these platforms… like the horse out of the barn, so we will try to catch up to our current reality of really easy access”
CBS News has reached out to INDR Labs, Reset, and Bodystreet for comment. They have yet to respond.
A spokesperson for Eli Lilly sent CBS News the following statement:
“Regulated manufacturers must demonstrate quality and consistency after dose. Black market sellers do not. A single test is only a snapshot and does not guarantee that the dose will be sterile or stable over two weeks, let alone that the next vial will be safe. Giving consumers false confidence in unregulated products based on limited testing could put more people in harm’s way. Every day the FDA, DOJ and others fail to take action against the growing black market puts consumers at no risk.
Third-party testing of a single sample of unknown ingredients and origin does not guarantee the safety of an illegal product. There is no apparent harm from taking the previous dose. Consumers are gambling with their health, with no way of knowing when dangerous small bottles will arrive at their doorsteps. CBS recently reported two deaths linked to black market retrutide, while media outlets in the UK, Ireland and Australia have also reported serious injuries and at least one death linked to similar illegal products. Just this week, Bloomberg reported that two manufacturers previously on the FDA’s green list have been cleaning products from other sources, contaminated with black mold and bugs, and have been destroying records. “