As Legitimate GLP-1 Compounding Ends, Rabbit Holes Open Up
The last legitimate path for GLP-1 compounding closes on May 22 and consumer protection advocates are worried about rabbit holes opening up to exploit the desperation of some patients. Yesterday, the National Consumer League (NCL) released survey results to suggest a great deal of confusion and misinformation about off-brand versions of GLP-1 medicines.
Perhaps more troubling is the emergence of unethical sellers of these medicines “for research purposes.” Most of the websites offering these peptides do little to make sure that they are selling to actual researchers. And desperate people may do foolish things to obtain semaglutide and tirzepatide from disreputable sources because they cannot afford to pay $500 monthly for Wegovy or Zepbound. says pharmacy professor C. Michael White. He fears that people who have relied on legitimate compounded products may soon “go further down the rabbit hole.”
Consumer Confusion
The NCL survey found relatively high awareness of compounded medicines, especially among women living with obesity. And 40% of women with obesity have taken a compounded drug. Among those who have used a compounded drug, 19% had taken one for weight loss.
Looking deeper, though, it becomes clear that simply being aware of these alternative products does not mean that people are aware of concerns about them. In fact, more than 70% of women think these products are tested and proven safe before they can be sold. This is not true. Neither FDA nor any regulator tests, reviews, and approves the safety of specific compounded drugs.
A disturbing number of the women surveyed are ready to accept that GLP-1 medicines can be taken in the form of a patch, an oral gummy form, or drops. Indeed, such products are fraudulent, says the NCL.
The Fundamental Problem: Access to Legitimate Medicines
All of this goes back to a fundamental problem of lousy access to legitimate medicines. These products came to the market with list prices well over a thousand dollars per month. Why? Because it cost billions of dollars to develop them and health insurers do a very poor job of covering therapies for obesity.
So Novo Nordisk and Lilly knew they would have to rely on selling these products to relatively few patients at first in order to have any hope of recovering their development costs. This worked for them, demand exploded, and market forces are driving prices down so that anyone who pays more than $500 per month for Zepbound or Wegovy is getting robbed.
Think about it. The price of these medicines has come down by more than 60% from their list price at launch. The CVS Caremark PBM announced yesterday that they are putting Wegovy on its preferred formulary list. That likely means they’ve negotiated a sweet discount that will put more price pressure on Zepbound – which has lately been surpassing Wegovy in new prescriptions.
But still, the prices are too high for many people who need these medicines. This is why too many people are tempted to go down rabbit holes in pursuit of sketchy alternatives to FDA-approved GLP-1 medicines
Click here for a deeper report on the sketchy online market for obesity medicines. For the NCL survey report, click here.
A Mad Tea Party, illustration by Arthur Rackham / WikiArt
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May 2, 2025
