FDA going after telehealth shops marketing compounded GLP-1s, not surprised
Posted by tiredmira in Weight Loss & Metabolic - 2 points, 4 comments.
https://www.emjreviews.com/emj-gold/news/fda-steps-up-crackdown-on-compounded-glp-1s
FDA just sent warning letters to like 25 telehealth companies for marketing compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide, plus some manufacturers for manufacturing quality violations. Not a huge shocker honestly.
My take is this was always gonna happen once the shortages officially got resolved. The compounded route was filling a real gap when brand stuff was impossible to actually get, but a lot of these telehealth shops were basically doing prescription-by-checklist with zero follow up. That kind of setup is how you end up with people on doses that never made sense for them, no bloodwork, no titration support.
Curious if anyone here actually used one of these telehealth clinics and got pulled into a legit med oversight setup, or if it really was as bare bones as the warnings suggest. Also wondering if this pushes more people toward the gray market or if brand supply is finally good enough that it does not matter.
Comments
- grinder265: Ngl the timing on this tracks. Once the shortage lists cleared there was no legal cover left for most of these shops and the writing was on the wall. I never went through one of the telehealth clinics personally but i had a training buddy who did last year and it was exactly the bare bones thing you described. Got a tirz script in like ten minutes, no labs ever asked for, dose just got bumped whenever he said the food noise was back. He ended up with brutal reflux and had no idea his A1C or lip
- tired_vet: Yeah that tracks with what ive heard too. The no-labs thing is wild to me, tbh you cant titrate safely without baseline numbers, and you sure cant catch issues like elevated glucose or thyroid stuff if youre not looking. His reflux sounds like the least of it honestly.
- tiredmira: Yeah honestly the no-labs thing was the part that bugged me most too. Like even a basic panel before starting would catch so much. I went through one early on before I switched to getting mine through a regular endo, and the only "intake" was a weight and a checkbox form. No fasting glucose, no A1c, nothing. Felt kinda reckless in hindsight 😅
- tiredmira: Yeah that's basically the worst case version of it, dose creep with zero baseline data so you have no idea if you're actually improving anything metabolic or just numbing appetite. He ever get labs done after the fact? I'm honestly more curious what a year of that kind of dosing does to fasting glucose and lipids in someone who started "healthy" enough to skip the workup in the first place. The cutoff in their message kind of cuts off the most interesting part honestly 😅
Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.