42 Percent of Online Pharmacies Selling Weight Loss Drugs Operate Illegally: Study

Medications sold by these pharmacies were found to be potentially contaminated and of lower purity.

Boxes of the diabetes drug Ozempic rest on a pharmacy counter in Los Angeles on April 17, 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images

More than 40 percent of the online pharmacies that claim to sell weight loss drugs such as Ozempic are illegal operations, with some defrauding customers by failing to deliver the promised products, according to a peer-reviewed study.

The study, published in the JAMA Network Open on Aug. 2, investigated the risk of buying semaglutide medications online. Semaglutide is the active ingredient in drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic.