The Dark Side of Weight Loss: Counterfeit Drugs and Illegal Marketplaces
In the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, a quiet suburban neighborhood in Boulder, Colorado, has become an unlikely hub for an international illegal marketplace of counterfeit weight loss drugs. A CNBC investigation has uncovered a web of criminal schemes involving fake or illegal versions of popular weight loss medications, including Ozempic and Wegovy, manufactured by Novo Nordisk, and Mounjaro and Zepbound, produced by Eli Lilly.
The skyrocketing demand for these treatments has created a lucrative opportunity for criminals to capitalize on the surge. Counterfeiters are brazenly altering drugs or shipping real products from overseas, violating federal law. The operations mainly involve phony or illegal versions of GLP-1s, a class of wildly popular weight loss drugs.
CNBC purchased a drug marketed as Ozempic from a company called Laver Beauty, which listed its address on a quiet residential street in Boulder. The drug cost $219 for a month’s supply, a fraction of the list price of $968 for a month’s supply of Ozempic in the U.S. However, the owners of the home in Boulder claim they have no connection to the company.
The drug was shipped via DHL from an office building in Shijiazhuang, China, and arrived at CNBC headquarters in a plain cardboard box with no refrigeration, despite requiring refrigerated storage. The packaging appeared authentic, featuring Chinese writing and the Novo Nordisk logo. Novo Nordisk confirmed that the drug was likely diverted legitimate product produced for the Chinese market, unauthorized for the U.S. market, and may pose an increased risk of infection for patients.
Law enforcement sources revealed that the Ozempic received from China is part of a larger ongoing federal investigation into Ozempic packages being shipped to the U.S. The representative from Laver Beauty claimed that all their products are genuine, but acknowledged that the product was intended for the Chinese market.
The rise of counterfeit drugs is a growing problem, with authorities in the UK seizing hundreds of counterfeit Ozempic pens last year. Counterfeit weight loss drugs pose serious health risks, and in some cases, can be fatal. Pharmaceutical companies and federal officials are fighting back against these illegal operations.
Eli Lilly’s chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Labs, Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, showed CNBC a sophisticated fake Mounjaro that contained a different medication entirely. “It looks to all the world like Mounjaro, comes in a box that’s labeled as Mounjaro… But it’s not Mounjaro at all.”
The counterfeiters are already trying to cash in on a weight loss drug that hasn’t even been put on the market yet: retatrutide. CNBC found it being sold online, despite Eli Lilly’s testing it in Phase 3 clinical trials.
At the international mail facility located on the grounds of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, more than 60,000 seizures of counterfeit and illegal goods were made last year. Port director Sal Ingrassia said that since January 1, the agency has made more than 198 seizures of medication labeled as Ozempic.
The pharmaceutical industry has teamed up with BrandShield, a cybersecurity company, to fight against counterfeit and illegally diverted drugs. BrandShield CEO Yoav Keren showed CNBC various sites that the company flagged and shut down, including a Facebook account and a TikTok account that impersonated GLP-1 makers and sold versions of the drug.
The World Health Organization issued a global alert in June warning of the health risks of purchasing fake products. Counterfeit Ozempic has been reported in 15 countries, and the U.S. government is taking action to combat the problem.
Nicole Johnson, national program manager for the Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, said that the top countries where counterfeits and diverted drugs originate are India, China, the UK, Mexico, and Turkey. In Turkey, government-subsidized pharmaceuticals have fueled the counterfeit drug market.
The risks of purchasing counterfeit drugs can be high, and consuming illegal versions can be dangerous to a person’s health. “It’s one thing to counterfeit a luxury bag. It’s a very, very different thing when you counterfeit a medicine,” said Maziar Mike Doustdar, executive vice president of international operations for Novo Nordisk.
Reports of issues with weight loss drugs containing semaglutide or tirzepatide have seen a sharp rise since 2019. “This is a very serious problem for us as a pharma company, as an industry, because patient safety is our license to operate. And you’re playing with people’s safety,” Doustdar said.
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