An obesity drug that hasn’t passed federal safety checks is being sold online and even at a New York bodega, and it’s disturbingly simple to buy. CBS News correspondent Adam Yamaguchi ordered vials of retatrutide, a next-generation weight-loss peptide that Eli Lilly is still researching, from two websites that promised medical monitoring but shipped the drug without any real consultation. He then purchased a $90 over-the-counter bottle of “Reta” in Brooklyn, despite a “research use only” warning label specifying that the drug was “not for human consumption.”
Lab tests raised more alarms. University of Iowa scientists found that online samples looked like a basic form of retatrutide, but the bodega bottle contained no peptides, just phenylacetic acid, considered a filler, and 13 bacterial colonies. Experts have warned that users are essentially experimenting on themselves, risking infection and falling seriously ill as regulators struggle to keep pace with a rapidly growing black market. The FDA has received reports of two deaths this year linked to illegal retatrutide, according to Gizmodo. In the UK, shaded versions are sold everywhere from gyms and nail salons to hairdressers and even street flower sellers, the BBC reports.
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