The Wild West of off-brand Ozempic

Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared Ozempic and Wegovy in shortage. That has given rise to an unprecedented parallel market for imitations of the drugs made by specialized pharmacies, while unregulated websites offer their own, cheaper versions.

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Many people who have used injectable diabetes drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss say they have been life-changing. But the drugs are expensive, and can be hard to access: They have proved so effective that patients are clamoring for more than drugmakers can churn out. Last year, the FDA declared Ozempic and Wegovy in shortage, allowing specialized compounding pharmacies to mix up their own versions of the drugs using the same active ingredients, for a fraction of the cost.

But the parallel market around weight-loss drugs doesn’t end there. Daniel Gilbert dove into the world of off-brand weight loss compounds and found an unregulated market flourishing online. His reporting turned up more than two dozen websites that bypass doctors and pharmacies completely to sell semaglutide — the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy — directly to consumers, usually with disclaimers that it’s not for human use. And he managed to track down some of the entrepreneurs trying to strike it rich in the Wild West of off-brand Ozempic.