BrandShield, a cybersecurity firm that detects trademark infringement and counterfeit sales online, said on Monday that it shut down more than 250 websites that were hawking fake weight loss drugs.
BrandShield collects evidence against websites selling counterfeit products and shares it with the companies hosting the websites and, in some cases, law enforcement agencies.
The company told Reuters that over 90% of the 279 pharmacy websites selling weight loss and diabetes medications that it helped take down last year were related to GLP-1s—the class of drugs to which Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound belong.
GLP-1s, which help regulate blood sugar levels, were originally approved to treat type-2 diabetes, but they’ve surged in popularity due to their weight-loss side effects.
Demand for these medications have transformed Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk into the most valuable pharmaceutical companies in the world. Eli Lilly, the maker of Zepbound, is the world’s tenth largest company by market capitalization, at $713 billion. And sales of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic even helped boost Denmark’s GDP in 2023.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see criminals try to use the growing popularity of these drugs to sell more counterfeits,” BrandShield CEO Yoav Keren told Reuters.
High demand for these drugs has also made it hard for some patients to have their prescriptions filled.
The Food and Drug Administration said in April that two doses of Zepbound, along with some doses of the company’s diabetes medication Mounjaro, are in limited supply. The drugs will be in short supply through at least the end of April due to increased demand, the FDA said.
Novo Nordisk has been limiting starter doses of Wegovy since last year to ensure there’s enough supply for patients already on the drug. But the problem is compounding: Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said in March that the gap between demand for weight loss drugs and the supply is so significant that it will take years to close.
The FDA has now issued warnings that counterfeit and compounded versions of these drugs have hit the market amid shortages and may be unsafe.
“While we understand certain drugs are in short supply and patients are having difficulty obtaining their medication, FDA urges patients to obtain prescription drugs only from state-licensed pharmacies that are located in the U.S.,” the agency said in January.