Two deaths reported to FDA after people took bootleg weight-loss drug
The FDA received reports of two deaths in people who took bootleg versions of retatrutide, an unapproved weight-loss drug, CBS News reported. The reports do not prove the drug caused the deaths. The FDA would not say whether it had checked them.
The Food and Drug Administration received reports in recent months that two people died after taking bootleg versions of an experimental weight-loss drug, CBS News reported. The drug is retatrutide, which Eli Lilly is developing and the FDA has not approved. Sellers often call it "Reta."
The reports do not prove the products caused or added to the deaths, CBS News said. The details have not been verified.
In the first case, in July, a health care worker told the FDA that a 41-year-old woman with obesity went into cardiac arrest, CBS News reported. The report said she got the drug "from an unreliable source."
In September, the FDA got a report that a 49-year-old patient died after a nurse "convinced" her to buy the drug from an online seller, CBS News said. She had severe dehydration, malnutrition and cardiac arrest.
Becker's Hospital Review, citing the CBS report, said Eli Lilly told CBS News that neither case was connected to a clinical trial.
Federal law bans selling unapproved drugs. But copies of retatrutide are sold widely online, CBS News reported. The outlet said it has found the drug in health spas, on wellness websites and even in some convenience stores.
"It is concerning because of the breakdown of our drug-approval process in the United States of America," Pieter Cohen of Harvard Medical School told CBS News. He said the FDA should get the actual drugs the two patients used and test them.
The FDA declined to say whether it had verified either report. "We review adverse event reports, gathering additional information when needed," the agency said, according to CBS News.
Eli Lilly said the reports "make clear the two individuals were taking black-market retatrutide," CBS News reported. The company said it has found fake products with too much, too little or the wrong drug inside.
What we know: Two deaths linked to products sold as retatrutide were reported to the FDA this year.
What we don't: Whether the products caused the deaths, or what was actually in them.
Where outlets agree CBS News and Becker's Hospital Review both report that two deaths after use of products sold as retatrutide were reported to the FDA, and that the FDA declined to say whether it had verified them.
Where they differ The outlets cited here report the same key facts so far.