Retatrutide, a new weight loss from Eli Lilly, isn’t even out yet. For tht matter, it hasn’t even finished human clinical trials. But it’s already garnered a cult-like following, Wired reports, with adherents swearing by its miraculous benefits.
Lilly’s drug works similarly to semaglutide, which is sold by Novo Nordisk under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy. It mimics a gut hormone responsible which binds to the GLP-1 receptor for regulating blood sugar levels and your perception of hunger, in effect suppressing your appetite.
But retatrutide is no mere GLP-1 agonist, as semaglutide and others like it are known. It’s being hailed as a first-of-its-kind “Triple G” drug because it targets the GLP-1 receptor, the GIP receptor, and the GCG receptor.
“With the three together… you can actually make a single molecule, like a master key, that opens multiple doors as effectively as [individual] keys, and achieve superior outcomes,” Richard DiMarchi, a chemist and chair in biomolecular sciences at Indiana University, told Wired.
In a phase II trial, obese participants who were administered retatrutide lost an average of 24.2 percent of their body weight over a 48-week period, Wired noted, which is more than what other drugs have achieved in nearly twice the amount of time.
Though it’s yet to hit the mainstream, it’s been a hit with so-called “grey market pharmacies” that sell unapproved drugs under the guise that they’re only for “research purposes.” Such pharmacies can be a vital pipeline of hormones and other compounds for trans and non-binary people seeking gender-affirming care, providing affordable alternatives to what you’d get through your health insurance, but they’re also an outlet of drugs with questions about their efficacy and safety, like anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
After trying retatrutide for himself, one man, 48-year-old Jake Terry, has launched an entire business that sources “research chemicals” from Chinese and other overseas manufacturers to peddle them to daring consumers. Terry’s pharmacy, and others like it, send the drug as a powder, leaving customers to follow instructions to mix and put it in a syringe themselves. It may sound a little jerry-rigged and prone to error, but its takers swear by its results.
“I was 53 with the dad-bod gut,” Terry’s business partner who chose to remain anonymous told Wired. “This is the first time in my life I’ve actually seen my abs. And I’ve changed nothing, other than retatrutide. I don’t exercise more. I don’t do anything other than take the shot once a week.”
Another man who goes by Craig took retatrutide through an official Eli Lilly trial and lost up to 80 pounds. “Because I can’t eat as much, I have a better relationship with food,” he told the magazine. “I have more mental space to do other things instead of just thinking about, like, when I’m going to eat again.”
It hasn’t worked out well for everyone. 50-year-old fitness YouTuber Adrian Cook said he took retatrutide because he had a “negative association with eating,” and that the “pitch for reta is it just puts that stuff on autopilot.” As a result, “you don’t have to deal with cravings, or the feeling of desperation you get from always being hungry,” he told the magazine.
Crook lost 25 pounds in seven weeks, but stopped because of extreme nausea, though his circumstances are very specific: he was taking a proton pump inhibitor to manage acid reflux he got after taking anabolic steroids.
Lilly spokesperson Niki Biro cautioned that “retatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly’s clinical trials. Anyone purporting to sell retatrutide for human use is breaking the law, and no one should consider taking anything claiming to be retatrutide outside of a Lilly-sponsored clinical trial.”
More on weight loss drugs: Scientists Testing GLP-1s for Overweight Dogs and Cats