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I don’t doubt it. My insurance doesn’t cover GLP-1s for any reason, including other medically necessary ones. With prices approaching $1,000/mo, and people seeing the efficacy of them, it’s no wonder they’re turning to cheaper options.
The problem is that people don’t know whether they are getting a real product or not. That can be a harmless substance at best and laced with dangerous toxins and methamphetamine at worst.
Correct and probably one of the biggest reasons they’re taking that route is insurance isn’t covering it or it’s too expensive. Same with insulin.
This one is NOT even approved yet. There is no way to get it outside of the grey market unless you are in the trial for it.
I’m referring to GLP1s in general.
The article is literally about people that are already on GLP-1s, but want to see even more progress so they jump to the grey market for the newest thing.
GLP-1s in general are easy to get and pretty cheap. You can get semaglutide (Ozempic/WeGovy) from several telehealth pharmacies for like $70 a month.
Cool story and I’m adding to it by noting that insurance and cost issues are affecting more than just this one.
GLP1s are cheap and easy to get. Cheaper than what you save from eating less food when you're on them, and you can get them easily online from the myriad of telehealth companies.
That's not what this article is about though. This article is about people specifically jumping to the grey market to get retatrutide because they want more progress than they're getting on the legal GLP-1s.
I don’t doubt that obesity is a real disease but there are many people who are taking the black market stuff when they are just overweight and looking for a way to lose weight without having to diet or exercise. That is incredibly stupid and reckless and I don’t think we should be understanding of those people.
This isn't just any GLP-1 though like semaglutide or tirzepatide.
Reta has not been approved at all yet. There is no non-grey market way to get it unless you are in a clinical trial.
If people can't get GLP drugs legitimately, then of course they will go to the grey market, and since all the peptides cost roughly the same to manufacture, it's obvious they will go for the newest and most powerful.
This is about one specific drug that is not even out of clinical trials yet. There is no way to get reta. Getting semaglutide or tirzepatide is comically easy through the million telehealth companies.
Reta you can only get on the grey market, in powder form, and you have to compound it yourself.
I understand that.
My point is, the main reason people go to the grey market is because it's far more accessible because it's far cheaper.
And once they go to the suppliers they are all the same cost, so it seems obvious to go for the "best".
The grey market isn’t that much cheaper. The telehealth companies are so ridiculously cheap today. And those are not the grey market.
You can get semaglutide for less than $70 a month all in, which is cheaper than what you’ll get on the grey market when you factor in all the consumables you also have to buy like bacteriostatic water to compound it yourself, needles, alcohol pads, etc.