More than 80 lawmakers tell the FDA to crack down on compounding
A bipartisan group of more than 80 lawmakers sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday asking the regulator to crack down on companies selling knockoff weight-loss drugs made by compounding pharmacies.
Copies of name-brand blockbuster weight-loss drugs made by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly exploded in popularity while those drugs were in shortage. That created a boom for compounding pharmacies and their telehealth partners, which are generally not allowed to produce copies at scale while the drugs aren’t in shortage, which GLP-1s no longer are.
“Undoubtedly, illegal counterfeit medications pose an increased risk to patient safety with sometimes fatal consequences,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
Shares of telehealth company Hims & Hers fell on the news, though they remained up for the day. The company has doubled down on continuing to compound GLP-1s, which cost it a partnership with Novo Nordisk.
