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It’s hard to think of a medical breakthrough that has generated as much fervor and enthusiasm as the use of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. Pair that with the fact that those drugs are prohibitively expensive for many people and often in short supply, and you have all the ingredients for a booming market in knockoffs, counterfeits and all manner of low-cost alternatives. And the internet is rife with them.
So how is a person supposed to know what’s safe and what’s not when it comes to buying GLP-1 drugs? Consumers need to be extremely cautious when buying lower-cost, alternative versions of these drugs, explain health services researchers Sujith Ramachandran and Claire Lin from the University of Mississippi.
That’s because the increasingly popular compounded versions of GLP-1 drugs do not have the same regulatory oversight as the brand names like Ozempic and Mounjaro. Compounded versions may contain the same active ingredients as the originals, but their concentrations often differ and they may be mixed with other inactive ingredients, which can alter dosing. Assuming that quality control measures, including proper storage, do occur for knockoff GLP-1 drugs, they may not be adequate to ensure patient safety, write Ramachandran and Lin.
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Websites that sell compounded versions of GLP-1 drugs are not allowed to sell them under the brand names.
Michael Siluk/UCG, Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Sujith Ramachandran, University of Mississippi; Liang-Yuan (Claire) Lin, University of Mississippi
The thriving market in online, counterfeit GLP-1 drugs that do not meet FDA criteria poses serious risks to consumers.
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