Eli Lilly sues six companies over alleged illegal sales of retatrutide knockoffs

Eli Lilly (Lilly) has filed six lawsuits against U.S. companies accused of illegally selling knockoff or black-market versions of its experimental obesity and weight-loss drug retatrutide.

The defendants include Aesthetic Envy, Astra Peptides, Legendary Peptides, Striker Pharmacy, Texas Peptides, and Lone Star Peptide — ranging from online peptide sellers and compounding pharmacies to medical spas.

Lilly alleges these firms are marketing purported retatrutide as "for research use only" while effectively selling it for human injection, bypassing FDA oversight and patient safeguards.

Retatrutide is still in clinical trials and has not been approved by the FDA or any other regulator; Lilly argues unapproved knockoffs endanger consumers with unverified, potentially contaminated products and damage the drug’s future reputation.

The lawsuits are part of a broader crackdown in which Lilly has referred over 200 other entities to U.S. authorities and reported more than 14,000 illicit listings and posts in over 100 countries selling illegal retatrutide products.