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We Bought and Tested What Was Sold as an Experimental Weight Loss Drug. The Lab Results Were ‘Pretty Terrifying.’
A drug that’s not FDA approved and still in clinical trials is being advertised all over the internet. Buying it turned out to be alarmingly easy. First, CBS News national correspondent Adam Yamaguchi placed an online order through the website for Reset Wellness, a clinic started by a nurse practitioner, for 20 milligrams of retatrutide.
The weight-loss medication, known as Reta, is an experimental peptide drug that Eli Lilly is studying as a next-generation obesity treatment. At checkout, he was promised a health evaluation, but the product arrived a week later without ever having to speak to a health professional. Next, he purchased Reta from the website for Bodystreet Jupiter, a gym in Florida, after confirming he met its Body Mass Index, or BMI, requirement.
The site said a doctor would review his intake form. The product arrived two days later without a consultation. He even found a poster advertising the product for sale over the counter, at a bodega in Brooklyn. Yamaguchi was able to buy a vial labeled “Retatrutide” at the corner store for $90. It came with a warning on the label that read “Research use only, not for human consumption.”
A New Cancer Drug Costs as Much as a Home Down Payment Each Month. Doctors Say That’s Greed, Not Health Care
James Howard thinks most people would say they’re willing to pay any price to stay alive — until they’re asked to put a dollar figure on it. “The question that nobody’s ever prepared to ask themselves is how much is your life worth … and how long does that decision take for you,” he said.
For Howard, the answer is $90,000 a month for a new pancreatic cancer drug he hopes will extend his life. Doctors in Vancouver diagnosed Howard with pancreatic cancer in November 2025. He underwent chemotherapy, but the cancer has since metastasized and is now Stage 4.
Earlier this year, he learned about daraxonrasib, a treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August but not yet in Canada. At three doses a day, it costs him about $63,000 US — roughly $90,000 Cdn — a month.
Why Drug Companies Are Rushing to Market Ketamine Medicines
How would you like your ketamine? In tablet form, or a thin film that melts in your mouth? Delivered as a nasal spray, or combined with a cancer drug to extend the antidepressant effects?
In a gold rush accelerated by the Trump administration’s unlikely zeal for experimental psychedelic treatments, over a dozen companies are developing products based on ketamine, the generic anesthetic that in recent years has become a popular treatment for mental health conditions. (And, unfortunately, a ubiquitous recreational drug.)
The companies are chasing the riches enjoyed by Johnson & Johnson, which is expected to earn $2.3 billion this year from its blockbuster drug Spravato, a ketamine-like nasal spray used to treat depression and suicidal ideation.
For now, Spravato is the only psychedelic treatment on the market approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Pfizer Sees Path Forward for Cancer Drug Despite Trial Failure
Pfizer Inc. sees a path forward for an experimental lung cancer drug in combination with other medicines, despite it failing a key clinical trial.
A subgroup of patients who got fewer treatments before being administered the US drugmaker’s sigvotatug vedotin lived more than two months longer than those in a control group treated with chemotherapy, the company said Sunday.
Pfizer gained the medicine in its $43 billion purchase of Seagen and expected it could be the first of a new class of drugs that deliver potent cancer-killing compounds directly to tumors. Instead, it experienced a setback when the medicine failed to improve survival in patients with an advanced form of lung cancer that couldn’t be treated with surgery.
Citizens Commission on Human Rights International Urges the FDA to Follow UK Warnings on Antidepressant Suicide Risk and Persistent Sexual Dysfunction
The United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has announced new antidepressant safety measures for all patients. The changes follow a review prompted by concerns from patients and families and require clearer suicide-risk information for patients of all ages — which is currently limited to children and young adults.
For the first time, the measures also recognize Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) from certain antidepressants, which can continue even after the drugs are stopped.
Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a 57-year mental health industry watchdog, points out that the MHRA has once again acted before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). CCHR calls on the FDA to issue equivalent warnings.
