STAT+: Eli Lilly opens a new legal front in its battle against compounded GLP-1s

Amid ongoing battles over alternate supplies of blockbuster weight loss drugs, Eli Lilly filed new lawsuits against four telehealth firms and their affiliates, but is using a new line of attack — the drugmaker accused two of the companies of engaging in the corporate practice of medicine.

To date, Lilly and its rival, Novo Nordisk, have filed dozens of suits against companies involved in compounding versions of semaglutide and tirzepatide, the obesity and diabetes drugs known as GLP-1s. For the past three years, telehealth companies, compounding pharmacies, and med spas have partnered to manufacture, prescribe and distribute copies of the drugs while shortages existed. Suits against them alleged trademark infringement, false claims and unfair competition, and have so far yielded varying outcomes.

This time, Lilly has alleged two companies, Mochi Health and Fella Health, engaged in the corporate practice of medicine, which refers to controlling and influencing prescribing decisions of health care providers. They purportedly did so with the help of affiliated medical groups and compounding pharmacies, according to the lawsuits filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. 

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