Telehealth booms as demand for GLP-1s surges and questions mount about safety, oversight
KFF Health News found medication-error reports jumped from just over 2,000 in 2020 to more than 25,000 in 2025 as telehealth prescribing expanded.
- Reports of medication errors involving popular weight loss drugs exploded from over 2,000 in 2020 to over 25,000 in 2025, according to a KFF Health News analysis of the FDA's Adverse Event Monitoring System.
- Karleigh McClain, a 31-year-old compliance consultant from Hendersonville, Tennessee, was hospitalized within 24 hours after a telehealth provider allegedly instructed her to inject nearly nine times the recommended starting dose of a compounded GLP-1.
- The FDA sent warning letters to online companies including Hims & Hers and SkinnyRx citing misleading claims about compounded drugs, while Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk filed 130 lawsuits against entities marketing "knockoff" semaglutide drugs.
- Physician Amanda Banks noted in The New England Journal of Medicine that GLP-1 prescriptions for non-diabetic or non-obese individuals rose to 17% in 2023, calling it "troubling" how easily patients obtain these drugs online.
- David Pilip, a spokesperson for Mochi Health, stated the company investigates adverse events with "extreme precision," though critics warn that one-stop shopping bypassing in-person pharmacy visits leaves patients vulnerable to dosing errors and limited follow-up care.
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Medical Xpress
Telehealth booms as demand for GLP-1s surges and questions mount about safety, oversight
Within 24 hours of injecting the first dose of a weight loss medication she received following a visit with a telehealth doctor, Karleigh McClain was admitted to the hospital, she said. The 31-year-old compliance consultant from Hendersonville, Tennessee, said she couldn't stop vomiting.
Telehealth booms as demand for GLP-1s surges and questions mount about safety, oversight - Hillsboro Sentry Enterprise
Karleigh McClain of Hendersonville, Tennessee, signed up for a membership with a telehealth company in January so that she could start taking a GLP-1 drug for weight loss. Within 24 hours of injecting her first dose, she was admitted to the hospital. (Arielle Weenonia Gray for KFF Health News)Within 24 hours of injecting the first dose of a weight loss medication she received following a visit with a telehealth doctor, Karleigh McClain was admit…
Telehealth booms as demand for GLP-1s surges and questions mount about safety, oversight - Seward Independent
Karleigh McClain of Hendersonville, Tennessee, signed up for a membership with a telehealth company in January so that she could start taking a GLP-1 drug for weight loss. Within 24 hours of injecting her first dose, she was admitted to the hospital. (Arielle Weenonia Gray for KFF Health News)Within 24 hours of injecting the first dose of a weight loss medication she received following a visit with a telehealth doctor, Karleigh McClain was admit…
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