Bacteria, fillers found in unregulated retatrutide vials, being sold even in a Brooklyn bodega

Posted Oct 21, 2026 12:15 PM CDT

An obesity drug that hasn't cleared federal safety checks is being hawked online and even at a New York bodega, and buying it is disturbingly simple. CBS News correspondent Adam Yamaguchi ordered vials of retatrutide, a next-generation weight-loss peptide that Eli Lilly is still researching, from two websites that promised medical oversight but shipped the drug without any real consultation. He then bought a $90 vial of "Reta" over the counter in Brooklyn, despite a "research use only" warning label that added the drug was "not for human consumption."

Lab tests raised more alarms. University of Iowa scientists found the online samples resembled a basic form of retatrutide, but the bodega vial contained no peptide at all—just phenylacetic acid, which is considered a filler, and 13 bacteria colonies.…