Demand for Obesity Drugs Pressures FDA’s Shortage Review (1)

The FDA’s decision-making process is under scrutiny after the agency flip-flopped on its declaration that the shortage of Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight-loss drug tirzepatide was over.

The Food and Drug Administration’s methodology for monitoring drug shortages wasn’t heavily scrutinized before weight-loss drugs arrived, attorneys say, but the agency is now facing calls to increase its transparency around how it determines whether compounding pharmacies are free to make copycat versions of Eli Lilly & Co.‘s popular diabetes and obesity treatment, which are branded as Mounjaro and Zepbound.

The intense consumer demand for weight-loss drugs raises the stakes for the regulator, ...