An injection pen for Eli Lilly and Company’s weight loss drug Zepbound is on display in New York City on December 11, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Eli Lilly and Company The company said Monday that it is suing three medical spas and online vendors for selling products that it claims contain tezeparatide, the main ingredient in its popular weight-loss drug Zepbound, including in the form of dissolvable tablets.
The new lawsuits, named Pivotal Peptides, MangoRx and Genesis Lifestyle Medicine of Nevada, are the first related to copycat tisipatin since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) filed suit Remove this drug from the list The drug was in short supply earlier this month.
Eli Lilly said the lawsuits are in no way contingent on tezepatide being removed from the list and could be filed regardless of whether supply issues are resolved.
Pivotal Peptides said it offers research-grade tilsiparatide, while MangoRx sells a compounded version online. Medical spa Genesis sells and administers a compounded version of the drug, the lawsuit alleges.
Eli Lilly accused Pivotal Peptides of selling products purporting to contain tezeparatide directly to patients without a prescription from a medical professional, even though the drugs were advertised for research purposes.
The lawsuits, filed in federal and state courts in Indiana, Texas and Washington state, accuse each defendant of false advertising and promotion. Eli Lilly said it sent a cease-and-desist letter to Pivotal Peptides before filing the lawsuit.
“Eli Lilly is taking these actions to protect U.S. consumers from direct patient safety risks,” a spokesman for the drugmaker said, adding that the defendants made false claims about efficacy or safety and were supporting them. The clinical data misled consumers.
Indianapolis-based drugmaker Already sued More than two dozen medical spas, wellness centers and compounding pharmacies sell products claiming to contain tezeparatide, which is also approved to treat type 2 diabetes under the brand name Mounjaro.
Eli Lilly said in a recent filing that MangoRx is marketing an oral version of tilsiparatide called Trim, despite the lack of any studies showing the formula is safe and effective. To date, the FDA has only approved tilsiparatide as an injectable drug.
After Eli Lilly sent Pivotal Peptides a cease-and-desist letter, the supplier changed its website to say it was under maintenance and changed the way it operates, via email, social media and word-of-mouth, according to the drugmaker’s lawsuit. Sale.
Eli Lilly said Genesis claimed to sell tilsiparatide, a combination containing vitamin B12, that was “untested, unproven and puts consumers at an unreasonable risk of harm.”
Eli Lilly is seeking a court order barring suppliers from selling drugs claiming to contain tilsiparatide and seeking unspecified damages.
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