This weight-loss drug hasn't been approved by the FDA. Doctors are prescribing it anyway.

Doctors are jumping the gun to prescribe a medication lacking FDA approval that has gone viral on social media. "Why are we waiting?" one physician asked.

By Daniel Gilbert, Adam Yamaguchi and Laura Geller

Published June 8, 2026

Retatrutide isn't supposed to be everywhere.

Touted as the next generation in the GLP-1 craze, it's an experimental weight-loss drug that is not authorized outside of clinical trials. The Food and Drug Administration hasn't reviewed whether it is safe and effective, which is the legal path for prescription drugs to come to market. And yet retatrutide is for sale all over the internet, a phenomenon with no modern precedent.