Ozempic Underworld — The Black Market Of Weight Loss Drugs

A CNBC investigation finds that Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy as well as other wildly popular obesity drugs are being actively counterfeited and illegally diverted from other countries in open marketplaces online and shipped at cut rate prices to the U.S. We uncover one such company that appears to be based in Colorado, but is really operating from China, as we tracked down the location, shipping Ozempic from the Chinese market to the U.S. CNBC goes inside this shadowy world from New York to outside London to Turkey and China, interviewing government officials as well as Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which manufacturers Mounjaro and Zepbound. Ozempic pens seized in the UK were filled with insulin, which could be fatal. Inside the international mail facility at JFK airport in Jamaica, N.Y., U.S. Customs officers seize counterfeit and Ozempic diverted from overseas and other weight loss drugs with the numbers doubling over the past year. Both pharmaceutical companies say they are alarmed by the black market, warning it’s putting patients at risk.

Correspondent: Melissa Lee
Senior Investigative Producer: Scott Zamost
Correspondent: Eunice Yoon
Editor: David Lettieri
Animation: Michael Schwartz
Researcher: Charlie Roth
Camera: Oscar Molina, Marco Mastrorilli, Gerard Miller, David Grogan, Leroy Jackson, Alex Herrera, Van Applegate, Robert Badendieck, Baris Kilinc, Armando Gallardo, Michael Green, Gary Levens
Audio: Everett Wong, Gary Wahlgren, Juan Rocha

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Ozempic Underworld — The Black Market Of Weight Loss Drugs

[wittynclever]

"Don't feed the illegal market, they don't care about us. All they care about is making money of the back of peoples vulnerability." That sounds exactly like what the pharmaceutical industry does to Americans. Oh but trust us, the big giant pharmaceutical corporations. We have your best interests at heart. We certainly value you more than our

[yakalaka]

They’re worried about their profits not the safety let’s be honest.

[iceescape]

The main problem is the cost of these drugs (and medicine in general) in the US is so overpriced and expensive.

[mpdragon]

Did a real great job of not getting to the point that if these drugs were actually priced competitively and available in the US that there wouldn't be a need for a black market.

[enochcoronado]

It's so ironic that they said, "don't buy counterfeit, they just want to make money and infringe on your vulnerability." 🤣 That's exactly what y'all doing with these drugs!

[America-The-Great]

If you don't want counterfits then don't price it at over a $1, 000😂😂😂😂😂

[patrickmoney]

Funny you didn’t ask why they sell Ozempic for $64 in the UK, $119 in Canada but we pay $1200 in the US! You’re having people focus on the shiny object instead of talking about real issues of corporate price gouging.

[patrikisgod]

this whole video feels like a sponsored post to protect corporate profits when I bet most "counterfeit" ozempic is the real deal

[rgms]

Blame the pharmaceutical companies for this, they should lower the prices and not play the victim.

[streamako]

Maybe don't charge $1200 a month for the drug

[josephs]

The only reason why this is a problem is because manufacturers intentionally restrict the supply of an easily scalable product to jack up the price. Like the guy said, "criminals will use people's vulnerabilities to turn a profit", yeah, starting with them.

[rwdplz]

Don't feed the illegal market? How about stop price gouging?

[JCbeMe]

1:52 "It's a massive problem which one has a bit of a hard time to understand how people could do this" says the pharma rep with a Dell laptop counterfeiting as a Mac.

Did you do this because Macs are overpriced and this was a cheaper solution? Oh the irony.

[andersonlynn]

Like those companies could care about anyone’s health, they only care about their profits.

[kwan]

Solution is simple. Stop staggered pricing. Either lower prices in North America or raise prices elsewhere so there is no difference.

[fmunro]

The real gangsters are novo nordisk and eli lilly

[NKim-gjvk]

The scariest thing I heard in this video was the real price of the drugs. That is the problem!

[jaredlukes]

Rewind, what? If it’s gonna cost that much more in the US it’s almost like you want a black market.

[ChristopherYeeMon]

You fix this problem instantly by having a flat global price for the entire world. Medicines should not have market based pricing. Things like electronics have elastic pricing and can have that, but medicines treat the same type of body all over the world

[jdev]

16:50 I'm supposed to believe the guy defending Ozempics quality control against frauds but has an Apple sticker over the Dell logo on his laptop