Eli Lilly is suing clinics that allegedly sell counterfeit versions of Mounjaro

Eli Lilly on Tuesday sued 10 medical spas, wellness clinics and pharmacies across the US for alleged sales cheaper, unauthorized versions of the company’s diabetes drug Mounjaro.

The actions come as Eli Lilly grapples with one Shortage of Mounjaro in the US due to exploding demand. Much of the drug’s popularity is due to the fact that it is unapproved Ability to help patients lose unwanted pounds.

Eli Lilly initiated several lawsuits in federal courts in Florida, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Minnesota, South Carolina and Utah. The lawsuit sought orders from the courts blocking the sale of counterfeit versions of Mounjaro and an unspecified amount of damages.

Eli Lilly specifically accuses the spas, clinics and pharmacies of marketing and selling “compounded” medicines that purport to contain tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro. Compound medications are customized versions of a treatment that are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Eli Lilly is the sole patent holder of tirzepatide and does not sell this ingredient to outside companies. It’s unclear what the spas and clinics are actually selling to consumers.

“Instead of investing the time and resources necessary to research, develop, and test their products to ensure they are safe and effective, and to obtain regulatory approval to market them, they develop, market, sell, and distribute “The defendant simply unapproved new products for unapproved uses throughout Florida and fourteen other states,” Eli Lilly wrote in a lawsuit against Rx Compound Store, a Florida-based compound pharmacy.

Eli Lilly added in the lawsuit that selling counterfeit versions of Mounjaro “puts patients at risk by exposing them to medications that have not been proven to be safe or effective.”

Rx Compound Store did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.

The moves take place months later Novo Nordisk filed multiple lawsuits accusing spas and medical clinics of selling compounded versions of its wildly popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

The FDA warned in May about the safety risks of unapproved versions of Ozempic and Wegovy after reports of adverse health reactions to compounded versions of the drugs emerged.

The FDA has not issued a warning about compounded versions of tirzepatide. However, according to the FDA’s database, Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy have been in short supply in the US since last year.

Analysts and industry executives have reported annual sales of these drugs and similar weight loss treatments could reach $100 billion within a decade.