Erin* has been using weight loss jabs for over six months. Desperate to lose 20kg, the 33-year-old first turned to Mounjaro at the end of last year. However, although it helped her shed the pounds, it also made some of her hair fall out, so the retail worker decided to seek out another treatment.
‘Like everyone on weight loss injections I was all over social media looking at reels and TikToks to see what everyone else was using,’ Erin tells Metro. ‘That’s when I heard about ‘Reta’.’
A new weight loss jab, Reta – real name Retatrutide- is making big waves on social media. Despite TikTok community guidelines making clear that the platform does not allow content that facilitates the trade or marketing of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, including weight loss or muscle gain products, the hashtag #reta has been used more than 44,000. On Instagram, there’s nearly 100,000 mentions.
Documenting their progress online, some fitness influencers have declared ‘Reta is the Meta’, while one brags that after using Retatrutide he didn’t eat for most of the day and even just the smell of a burger he cooked at 3pm left him feeling full.
What’s so special about it?
Coming from the same manufacturers of Mounjaro, this latest jab making waves is believed to be up to three times stronger than Ozempic in terms of tackling food noise and suppressing appetites.
‘Everyone seems to have such incredible effects from it, not even a normal type of hunger like you get on the traditional weight loss jabs. The fact it’s so fast acting made me want to give it a go,’ explains Erin.
‘It was easy enough to buy via some click through links. It costs me around £180 for 10mg which I inject a small amount of weekly. I have been on it a couple of weeks, now.’
The catch
Every time she uses Retatrutide, however, Erin knowingly takes her life into her hands – as it’s not approved for use. She’s buying it illegally from unlicensed suppliers who have no authority on how it should be used.
‘I know it’s a risk, but there’s been so much success on social media, it seems quite a small one,’ Erin insists.
As it’s yet to be licensed by the MHRA – the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency – experts are desperately warning Retatrutide users they are playing with their lives by buying the unapproved drug online.
‘The issue is, we don’t really know what the risks are and we don’t know the dosing either,’ Dr Helen Wall, from the Oaks Family Practice in Bolton, tells Metro.
‘It’s certainly not just a stronger version of Ozempic and Mounjaro. It’s working on a different pathway, so that needs exploration in terms of, what the safety is, what the risks are and what the side effects are.
“It’s been developed by Eli Lilly, who are a reputable, well known pharmaceutical company, so ultimately, it may well end up on the market, but at the moment it’s still in clinical trials.’
How ‘Reta’ works
Dr Helen explains: ‘It belongs to the class of drugs called triple hormone receptor agonists; which means it works on three different metabolic pathways. All three either suppress your appetite, stabilize your blood sugar or your insulin response, and make you feel full, and boost fat burning.
‘Doing all three in one pathway means Retatrutide looks more potent than existing treatments like Ozempic and Mounjaro. Ozempic is a GLP 1 agonist only, and Mounjaro works on two of the pathways, so Retatrutide will probably the first one that would work on all three metabolic pathways.’
The results from the early stages of trials suggest people are losing up to almost a third of their body weight, but Dr Helen says that itself comes with risk.
‘30% is obviously a lot more than the existing weight loss injections but that’s expected because of the metabolic pathways it works on,’ she explains. ‘As with plenty of drugs though, there’s lots of illegal counterfeit versions circulating online and you never really know what you’re getting.’
When Metro got in touch with TikTok about the prevalence of Retatrutide on the platform, a spokesperson told us they had reviewed the hashtags shared and removed content that violated Community Guidelines, as well as banning the hashtag #retatrutide.
Erin, however, inists she’s glad she discovered the controversial jab – despite suffering some side effects: ‘I had some heart palpitations when I first went on it, but I made dinner for the kids the other day and even the smell of lasagne cooking in the oven made me feel so full – like I’d had a big Christmas dinner.’
The unknown risks
While the trial results are yet to be published, early reports suggest Retatrutide may increase heart rate, says Fr Helen. ‘In addition, there’s also some concerns being raised about increasing potential bone fracture risk and kidney stones.
She warns that any illegal use mixed with a blase attitude could result in serious long term health issues. ‘You’re running the risk of all sorts of problems. You could end up with electrolyte imbalance, which is dangerous for your heart rhythm.
‘You can go into sudden cardiac arrhythmia, and in a worst case, you could suddenly die. We know pancreatitis is a real issue with these medications, and it can be very serious.
‘It’s simple science too, if you’re losing weight that rapidly, it’ll be at physical cost. You’re looking at potential electrolyte imbalances and issues with bone health to name just two. We also don’t even know what dosing is safe – that’s part of the trial process.
‘I’ve seen plenty of patients when I worked in hospitals with life threatening pancreatitis, and sadly, some of them do die.
‘Medications take a long time to be approved for a reason and until we get the official trial data and approvals no one should be buying illegal versions.
‘Put bluntly, right now, Retatrutide is really unsafe.’
What the makers says
Lilly UK tells Metro: ‘Retatrutide is an investigational molecule that Lilly is studying for the treatment of obesity – it is in phase 3 clinical trials and is not available to patients outside of these trials. Retatrutide has not been reviewed or approved by the FDA, EMA, or any regulatory agency anywhere in the world, and therefore at this time no one can sell retatrutide for human use. Any product falsely representing itself as a Lilly investigational product not yet approved by the FDA, like retatrutide, may expose patients to potentially serious health risks.
Lilly aims to take all necessary actions to safeguard public health. We continue to support international educational efforts by joining forces with non-governmental organisations such as the World Health Organisation, World Health Professionals Association and World Customs Organisation, to warn patients and healthcare professionals about the dangers of buying medicines from unregulated outlets.’
*Name has been changed.
