Upper East Side moms flocking to ‘shady’ clinics for off-brand Ozempic
One 40-year-old fashion executive and mom of three who lives on the Upper East Side, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Post she is currently taking off-brand semaglutide in the hopes it will help her lose the excess baby weight, a “hush-hush” trend she said is permeating her affluent Manhattan neighborhood.
She called her primary care doctor a month ago to see if he could prescribe her a brand-name injectable to help her get back to her 118-pound pre-baby body. She’s struggled to lose weight after giving birth to twins via IVF in 2018 and getting pregnant with a baby girl just 9 months later. The mom, who is 5’2″ said she lost 20 pounds on her own, but her weight loss plateaued, and she suffers “a lot of pain” in her legs.
When her doctor said no, she Googled “semaglutide New York” and said she found Elite Health Center NYC. A mom, who wished to remain anonymous, said she got a prescription for semaglutide after a telehealth consultation with Elite Health Center NYC. Pictured here is an ad from the clinic’s website.“I thought it was just too easy, but then I Googled him and he’s a real doctor, and apparently he’s also a cannabis doctor,” she alleged.
“These unlawful marketing and sales practices, including the use of Novo Nordisk trademarks in connection with these practices, have created a high risk of consumer confusion and deception as well as potential safety concerns,” the release continues. “Compounded products do not have the same safety, quality and effectiveness assurances as our FDA-approved drugs and may expose patients to health risks.”The Post reached out to Eli Lilly for comment.
“There are no randomized controlled trials defending that, nor is there any level of concrete data,” Dr. Narang said of people claiming compounded drugs are safe because they don’t have salt forms. Because of this, she believes prescribing compounded semaglutide is “unethical.” Her opinion of compounded semaglutide is that it’s “not safe.
Despite warnings from doctors, a simple Google search reveals that multiple telehealth weight loss programs and med spas in New York City are offering semaglutide injections, some of which are compounded. Colantonio estimated that 80% of the patients he sees are women “who have gained weight because of a previous pregnancy or pregnancy.”
He said he works with a pharmacy in Florida called Hallandale that he trusts and said that “in this time that we’re in, when Novo Nordisk has such a short supply of Ozempic and Wegovy, it is absolutely 100% safe to prescribe a compounded semaglutide as long as the physician is confident in the compounding pharmacy.”
Colantonio, who has an in-office practice and a telehealth practice, said he has patients fill out an intake form on their medical history and their family’s medical information as well as their “social history, behavior history, medications, surgery, things along those lines.” “Are they able to tell you what the risk of pancreatitis might be for that person or the risk of GI side effects for that person?” she said.”It’s really important to get a thorough history and you only end up being able to diagnose pancreatitis in the event itself, like in the E.R. and, you know, when they present with it,” she said.
“We have a monthly program … the rate is so cheap, it’s like amazing. It’s $599 a month…The compound is all taken from FDA-approved pharmaceutical companies and they compound it with B12,” Banyan told The Post. “There’s zero research behind what they’re saying. There is no evidence. Nothing,” she said, referencing the lack of FDA findings.
IV Drips offers a weight loss program for $599 a month that comes with a bloodwork review and lifestyle monitoring along with a semaglutide injection compounded with B12.“Our clinic utilizes a generic version of semaglutide rather than brand-name medications like Ozempic or Wegovy,” Drip Gym said. No FDA-approved generic versions of Wegovy or Ozempic exist and it’s not known if they mean compounded semaglutide.
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