Doctors warn of potential dangers from weight loss injections

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- If you’ve noticed ads for weight loss injections flood your social media feeds, you’re not alone. The soaring popularity of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy has created an entire industry trying to cash in on the craze.

The ads promise GLP-1 medications for diabetes and weight loss delivered to your door at prices that can’t be beaten. It sounds great, considering the cost of brand-name drugs.

At a recent hearing of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders cited the monthly price of Wegovy as $1,349.

But the products peddled online are likely not FDA-approved. They are likely compounded versions of the medications, made by compounding pharmacies.

“They’re essentially manufacturing their own versions of these drugs using similar ingredients, but there’s no way to be sure if it’s the same,” said Dr. Dhavni Doshi, the Director of the Rutgers Weight Management Center at University Hospital.

“These medications are called GLP-1 agonists,” explained Dr. Doshi. “They work by releasing a hormone that is naturally produced in the body and the gut - usually the stomach - that helps you feel fuller longer.”

There are four FDA-approved GLP-1 drugs you’ve likely heard of: Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound.

“Those brand names are the only ones that are the real, actual medications that are FDA-approved,” said Doshi.

Most of what is advertised online are compounded versions.

“Similar ingredients are being formed and created through compounding pharmacies that are mimicking these drugs, and people are purchasing those mimics of these drugs,” said Doshi. “They’re not actually the real FDA-approved medications that we are prescribing for weight loss under medical supervision.”

Since 2022, there has been a shortage of FDA-approved GLP-1 drugs, and manufacturers have not been able to meet demand. Until supply catches up, the FDA allows compounding pharmacies to make their own copies of the drugs. They are not FDA-approved and may not be identical to the commercially available drug.

“Compounding in general is a completely appropriate thing to do,” said Dr. Doshi. “But the widespread use for weight-loss drugs mimicking the FDA-approved versions has gotten more out of control than what we ever could have imagined.”

You will likely see compounded drugs marketed as an ‘oral semaglutide,’ the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, or as ‘tirzepatide,’ which is in Mounjaro and Zepbound.

“People are taking their own risk by purchasing these medications from pharmacies directly and they are not the same as FDA-approved medications,” said Doshi.

This year, the World Health Organization even issued an alert about the rise in counterfeit Ozempic around the world, saying the fakes could have anything in them.

The proliferation of these off-brand GLP-1 products will only last so long. Once the drug is removed from the FDA’s shortage list, the widespread use of compounding has to stop.