Some Chinese companies now racing to make generic versions of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy also supplied ingredients for more than a billion makeshift doses of weight-loss drugs sold online in the U.S. over the past two years, according to three sources and a review of shipping and public records.
Cheap copies of Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound are on the retreat in the U.S. as regulators restrict their sale, slowing shipments from Chinese suppliers of the raw ingredients that allowed for explosive growth of the medicines.
Robert Califf, who had two stints leading the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said never before had a new drug become so wildly popular that the manufacturer simply couldn’t keep up.
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