2026-07-02T10:00:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：杰米·科恩布拉特
更新时间：2026年7月2日 / 美国东部时间上午10:35 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
在布鲁克林一家便利店的柜台后，一名收银员正熟练地为一小瓶肽类药物结账，该店将其宣传为瑞来鲁肽——一款通常被联邦法律禁止销售的实验性减肥药。
“本店销售肽类药物”，格林先生便利店的店面上挂着一块大型招牌，这家小店位于贝德福德大道一段繁忙的路段，夹在一家波奇饭餐厅和一家殡仪馆之间。海报将瑞来鲁肽宣传为用于“体重管理”，但同时也用小号字体标注，所售肽类产品“不供人类食用”——这一免责声明似乎并未影响生意。
周二下午值守柜台的一名员工起初不确定店里还有没有瑞来鲁肽。
“这玩意儿卖得特别火”，这名员工说道，随后他找出一瓶药，以95美元的价格卖给了哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的记者。整个过程无需年龄验证、无需医疗问卷，也不需要处方。
纽约多家便利店都在销售所谓的瑞来鲁肽，这一现象表明，这款尚未获得美国食品药品监督管理局安全有效认证的实验性药物热潮，已经从阴暗的线上供应商转移到了实体零售店铺，与苏打水和零食摆在一起售卖。
上个月，哥伦比亚广播公司新闻曾报道过，瑞来鲁肽在未获得监管批准的情况下在网上走红，并被持牌医疗从业者广泛开具处方。但这种未经证实的研究级瑞来鲁肽公然在药店柜台销售的情况，还是让一些医学专家感到震惊。
“我很惊讶居然有公司如此公开地销售一款未获FDA批准的产品”，曾在哈佛医学院任教的药物监管专家乔纳森·达罗说道，“他们到底是用什么理由来为这种行为辩护的？”
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻记者购买的药瓶上印有一家名为Indr Labs的肽类供应商的标签。瓶身附带的二维码链接到该公司的网站，网站上称其产品“仅用于研究”——这一说明并未出现在药瓶本身。联邦法律允许实验性药物在有限情况下用于临床试验或动物研究，但禁止向公众商业销售。
在其网站上，Indr Labs推广各种肽类产品，声称这些产品已通过第三方实验室检测成分和纯度。这类被称为分析证书的检测报告，是购买不受监管的研究级产品的人们广泛依赖的依据。但就Indr Labs而言，其报告存在多处疑点。
例如，瑞来鲁肽的检测证书附带的图表显示，该样品似乎被鉴定为另一款减肥药替尔泊肽。
此外，报告显示分析工作由Vanguard实验室完成。但该实验室运营经理托里·约翰逊表示，这份证书是伪造的，Indr Labs网站上其他声称由Vanguard出具的肽类产品检测报告也同样是伪造的。
“我们从未出具过这些证书，我们也没有名为INDR Labs的客户”，约翰逊在电子邮件中说道。
Indr Labs未回复记者的电子邮件提问。随后该公司修改了网站，要求输入密码才能访问检测报告。
记者未能联系到格林先生便利店的店主。FDA未回复记者的置评请求，但该机构曾警告消费者不要购买标注为研究用途的瑞来鲁肽，称此类产品“质量未知，可能危害健康”。
开发瑞来鲁肽用于治疗肥胖和2型糖尿病的礼来公司发言人呼吁监管机构和执法部门“协助摧毁销售这些黑市药物的非法网络”。
在临床试验中，瑞来鲁肽被证明比FDA已批准的最强效减肥药更有效。这一发现引发了社交媒体上的热议，也在礼来公司尚未向FDA提交审批申请之前，催生了一个庞大的药物市场。
FDA的职责是判定药物是否安全有效，但到目前为止，该机构在打击瑞来鲁肽销售方面一直举步维艰。在采取执法行动时，FDA专门针对那些声称瑞来鲁肽可用于研究，但却宣传其所谓健康益处的公司。
Indr Labs的网站称其肽类产品纯度至少为“98%”，并宣传“ discreet packaging（隐秘包装）”，但避免做出医疗声明，并要求线上购买者确认产品仅用于研究。然而，格林先生便利店的店面广告却列出了瑞来鲁肽的“心血管代谢健康”和“体重管理”等听起来适合人类使用的功效。
而且这种情况并非个例。
仅两个街区之外的Classy Bite Deli 2店的橱窗上也贴着同样的Indr Labs海报，同样在售瑞来鲁肽。记者未能联系到该店店主。
美国肽协会联合创始人、律师杰夫·科恩表示，在零售店铺中为研究级瑞来鲁肽打广告是“极其大胆的行为”。
“这可能是我见过的最激进的产品植入方式”，科恩说道。他补充道，销售研究用途肽类产品就像在州际公路上开车：“每条州际公路都有速度限制，但没人遵守”，他说，“被拦下的都是少数违规者。”
尽管许多个人和部分医疗从业者表示，他们从瑞来鲁肽中看到了显著效果，但也有报告称出现了令人担忧的副作用。美国毒物中心追踪到，归因于该药物的中毒报告数量急剧上升，FDA也收到了更多未经证实的不良事件报告。
就在上个月哥伦比亚广播公司新闻发布关于瑞来鲁肽广泛可获得性的调查报道的同一天，一名72岁女性联系FDA，称自己在服用处方该药物后出现“严重的皮肤刺激，至今仍在看医生”。这名女性补充道：“今天在CBS新闻上才了解到，这款药物未获FDA批准。”
What a Brooklyn bodega reveals about the craze for an experimental weight-loss drug
2026-07-02T10:00:00-0400 / CBS News
By Jamie Korenblat
Updated on: July 2, 2026 / 10:35 AM EDT / CBS News
Behind the counter of a bodega in Brooklyn, a cashier casually rang up a tiny vial of a peptide the store advertised as retatrutide — an experimental weight-loss drug whose sale is generally prohibited by federal law.
“PEPTIDES SOLD HERE” reads a large sign displayed on the storefront of Mr. Green, a small shop on a busy stretch of Bedford Avenue sandwiched between a poke restaurant and a funeral home. The poster promotes retatrutide for “weight management,” though it also says in small type that the peptides on offer are “not for human consumption” — a disclaimer that doesn’t appear to be hurting business.
An employee manning the counter on Tuesday afternoon initially wasn’t sure if he had any retatrutide left.
“This sh** has been selling,” the employee said, before locating a vial and selling it to a CBS News reporter for $95. No age verification, no medical questionnaire, no prescription needed.
The sale of what is billed as retatrutide in multiple New York bodegas shows how the craze for an experimental drug — which has not been approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration — has migrated from shadowy online vendors into brick-and-mortar retail settings where it is sold alongside sodas and snack food.
At the Mr. Green convenience store in Brooklyn, a sign in the window, seen in the closeup on the right, advertises peptides from Indr Labs, including retatrutide, an experimental weight-loss drug that has not been approved by the FDA. CBS News
Last month, CBS News documented how, without regulatory approval, retatrutide has gone viral online and was being widely prescribed by licensed medical professionals. But the brazen advertising and sale of an unproven, research-grade version of retatrutide — over the counter — shocked some medical experts.
“I was surprised that there would be a company so openly selling a product that’s not approved by the FDA,” said Jonathan Darrow, an expert in drug regulation who previously taught at Harvard Medical School. “What argument could they possibly be putting forth to justify this?”
The vial purchased by CBS News bears the label of a peptide vendor called Indr Labs. A QR code links to the company’s website, which says its products are “for research use only” — language that doesn’t appear on the vial itself. Federal law allows experimental drugs to be used in clinical trials or animal research in limited circumstances, but it prohibits their commercial sale to the public.
On its site, Indr Labs promotes various peptides, claiming that they are tested by a third-party lab for their makeup and purity. Known as certificates of analysis, these lab reports are widely relied on by people who purchase unregulated, research-grade products. But in Indr Labs’ case, there are irregularities.
For instance, the certificate for retatrutide shows a graph that appears to identify the sample as a different weight-loss drug, tirzepatide.
In addition, the report indicates the analysis was performed by Vanguard Laboratory. But Tori Johnson, the lab’s operations manager, said it is fake — along with the lab reports for other peptides on Indr Labs’ website that claim to be by Vanguard, she said.
“We did not issue these certificates, we do not have a client called INDR Labs,” Johnson said by email.
Indr Labs did not respond to emailed questions. It subsequently changed its website to require a password to access the lab reports.
Efforts to reach the owner of Mr. Green were unsuccessful. The FDA didn’t respond to a request for comment, but it has warned consumers against buying retatrutide that is labeled for research use, saying such products “are of unknown quality and may be harmful to their health.”
A spokesperson for Eli Lilly, which is developing retatrutide to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes, called on regulators and law enforcement to “help dismantle the illicit networks selling these black-market drugs.”
In clinical trials, retatrutide has shown that it could be more effective than the most potent weight-loss drugs that have been approved by the FDA. That has ignited buzz on social media and kindled a vast market for the drug well before Eli Lilly even seeks approval from the FDA.
The agency, whose job is to determine whether a drug is safe and effective, has so far struggled to crack down on the sale of retatrutide. When it has taken enforcement action, the agency has singled out companies that claim retatrutide is for research but advertise its purported health benefits.
Indr Labs’ website says its peptides have at least “98% purity” and promotes “discreet packaging,” but it steers clear of medical claims and requires online purchasers to acknowledge it is only for research use. The advertisement in Mr. Green’s storefront, however, lists human-sounding benefits such as “cardiometabolic health” and “weight management” for retatrutide.
And it is not unique.
Barely two blocks away, Classy Bite Deli 2 had the same Indr Labs poster on its window and also offered retatrutide for sale. Efforts to reach its owner were unsuccessful.
Jeff Cohen, a lawyer and co-founder of the American Peptide Association, said advertising research-grade retatrutide in a retail store was “incredibly aggressive.”
“It’s probably the most aggressive form of product placement” he’s seen for retatrutide, Cohen said. Selling research-use peptides is like driving on an interstate, he added: “Every interstate has a speed limit, but nobody abides by it,” he said. “People who get pulled over are the outliers from the pack.”
While many individuals and some medical professionals say they’ve seen great results from retatrutide, there are also reports of concerning side effects. America’s Poison Centers has tracked a sharp rise in reports of toxicities attributed to the drug, and more claims of adverse events — though unverified — are arriving at the FDA.
On the same day last month that CBS News ran an investigation on the widespread availability of retatrutide, a 72-year-old woman contacted the FDA to report “sever [sic] skin irritation and still seeing doctors” after being prescribed the drug. The woman added, “learned today on CBS news that it is not FDA approved.”