Prescription drug freight fraud, October 2025

Our analysis of large-scale commercial imports of semaglutide, tirzepatide, apixaban, pembrolizumab, and antibiotics from March to August of 2025 showed cancer drugs masquerading as antibiotics, semaglutide supposedly manufactured at a home hardware store, and over 120 kilograms of tirzepatide from unregistered facilities marked for compounding. Most of the shipments made it through U.S. ports of entry.

Examples of "fishy" shipments

A semaglutide shipment in March marked “for personal use” listed Brindlewood Home Hardware in Canada as its manufacturer.

An ordinary suburban address tied to a small IT consultancy was linked to 11 separate shipments claiming to be from Eli Lilly. The FDA refused them all, but the repeated attempts show the scale of fraudulent misrepresentation.