BOULDER, COLO. — Not far from the majestic Rocky Mountains is an ordinary suburban neighborhood, a tree-lined street and a modest light gray home.
It’s not the kind of place you’d imagine an investigation into black market Ozempic would lead. But it did.
A CNBC investigation into counterfeit weight loss drugs revealed an international illegal marketplace where criminals either brazenly alter the drugs or ship the real product from overseas — what’s known as drug diversion and against federal law.
The operations mainly involve phony or illegal versions of Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic and its obesity drug Wegovy as well as Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound. All four drugs are in a class of wildly popular weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s. The skyrocketing demand for the treatments has led to criminal schemes attempting to capitalize on the surge.
CNBC bought a drug marketed as Ozempic from a company called Laver Beauty, which on its website and corporate documents listed its address on that quiet residential street in Boulder. The drug cost $219 for a month’s supply, a fraction of the list price of $968 for a month’s supply of Ozempic in the U.S.
The owners of the home in Boulder say they have no connection to the company — though they’ve received mail and a 1099 IRS tax form addressed to Laver Beauty.
The drug CNBC purchased was shipped via DHL from an office building in Shijiazhuang, China, about a four-hour drive from Beijing. The package that arrived at CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, was a plain cardboard box with no refrigeration except for two melted ice packs. Ozempic is supposed to be stored refrigerated. The drug packaging, which appeared authentic, featured Chinese writing and the Novo Nordisk logo.
In an email, Novo Nordisk said the drug appeared to be “diverted legitimate product that was produced for, and distributed to, the Chinese market during late ’23 and early ’24. Therefore, it would be unauthorized/unapproved for the US market.”
The company added that it “cannot confirm the sterility, which may present an increased risk of infection for patients who use the counterfeit product.”
Law enforcement sources told CNBC that the Ozempic received from China is part of a larger ongoing federal investigation into Ozempic packages being shipped to the U.S.
Laver Beauty did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment, but a person who identified himself as a company representative told CNBC in a WhatsApp chat, “All our products are genuine. We don’t sell fake ones.” The person acknowledged that the product CNBC purchased was intended for the Chinese market.
The representative also messaged that the Boulder address “is the previous address of our U.S. warehouse.” A day after CNBC inquired about the Boulder address, it was removed from the company’s website.
Counterfeit medication
The Ozempic that CNBC purchased is considered an illegally diverted drug. A separate but related growing problem is the rise of counterfeit…
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