Eli Lilly filed lawsuits across seven states alleging various spas, clinics and compounding pharmacies are illegally selling versions of its Type 2 diabetes drug Mounjaro, according to court documents.
The drugmaker is the sole patent holder of Mounjaro's active pharmaceutical ingredient, tirzepatide. Eli Lilly is requesting monetary damages and that these companies be blocked from selling tirzepatide marketed as Mounjaro.
Mounjaro is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, which is the same drug class as Ozempic and Wegovy, two Novo Nordisk drugs that have been in short supply for about a year because of weight loss trends. Novo Nordisk also filed similar lawsuits against spas, clinics and compounding pharmacies in mid-2023 along with claims of companies selling unapproved copycats.
"Products claiming to contain tirzepatide that are made and/or distributed by compounding pharmacies or distributed by counterfeit sources have not been reviewed by the U.S. FDA or global regulatory agencies for safety, quality, or efficacy; are not FDA-approved like Mounjaro; and may expose patients to potentially serious health risks," Eli Lilly said in a Sept. 19 news release.
The lawsuits are in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.