Mumbai: It starts with a single Instagram reel. A fitness influencer hammering out the pros and cons of the market’s most potent weight-loss peptides. Two taps and the algorithm soon takes over. A flood of peptide-fueled weight-loss journey posts cover the feed. Long YouTube explainers are then hunted down—this is the beginning of a rabbit hole dug deep for months. The path is paved with AI-simplified scientific papers, obsessive Reddit threads, and private chat groups. All of it is a crescendo building toward one final act: a shipment from China of powdered weight-loss medication, unapproved and still under trial.Hundreds across India rely on these imports, partly to beat the prices of doctor-prescribed medications like Mounjaro, which can cost Rs 16,000 for a month. Semaglutide (known by the brand name Ozempic) has become cheaper than ever before, but even that is unlikely to dent the market for “Chinese peptides”.The main attraction here is a desperate hunt for alternatives that delay the weight-loss plateau. Even the most potent GLP-1s can only reduce the weight to a certain point as the gut eventually adapts to the medication. When one discontinues, the weight slowly bounces backA Reddit group named ‘r/Retatrutide’ pulls 1,56,000 weekly visitors from across the world. This is an experimental injectable medication that mimics three different hormones (GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon). In clinical trials, it has shown greater promise for weight loss than its predecessors.“Anyone from India? I am very new to peptides and wanna talk with an Indian guy running Reta…,” posted one user months ago on r/Retatrutide.Recently, another user, Tarun (name changed), commented on the post: “I’m trying to find legit sources for Reta here but I’m not able to.” He soon announced to the group that he had found one.There are many like him who are trying to get their hands on Reta. At KEM Hospital, Dr Tushar Bandgar recalled a moment that left his team befuddled. A patient sent an internet-downloaded picture of a box labelled Retatrutide and asked if it could be consumed.“We told him it is unapproved for use,” said Dr Bandgar.The Mumbai boysTarun is a 20-year-old Grant Road resident who has struggled with obesity since his teens. “By 15, I just wanted to lose weight. I started learning about calories, micronutrients, and protein,” he told TOI. A gym membership at 17 helped him get his weight down 10 to 15 kgs, to around 80 kgs in a year, but then no more.Last year, the world of peptides flooded his screen during a random bout of doom-scrolling. He found himself looking up Tesamorelin (used to reduce excess abdominal fat, mostly in HIV patients), Ipamorelin (for muscle growth), MOT-C (for metabolic efficiency), and TB-500 (for muscle repair).Finally, he settled on Reta: “I am a huge fan,” he said. This Monday, he began a 1mg weekly dose of it, paying Rs 11,000 for 50mg after a “student discount”.What Tarun was browsing, Javed (name changed), a 41-year-old Kharghar-based photographer, was already injecting. Along with Retatrutide for weight-loss, Javed uses Tesamorelin and Ipamorelin. The Ozempic buzz opened the door to GLP-1 for him, and then more niche peptides. 10 vials of Retatrutide (10mg each) costs him Rs 10,000; it yields 5 mg injections weekly.Tarun’s Bengaluru-based seller, Ranjan (22, name changed), who boasts a client base of 200, himself struggled with obesity for years. His first import attempt of Retatrutide was a scam. “I injected 20 mg over 45 days, but nothing happened,” he said.Through Reddit, reliable vendors were found in no time. As a seller, he makes the terms clear: “I tell them that the dosage is their lookout and the supplies are mine.”His website carries the disclaimer: “Products sold are strictly for in-vitro research and analytical applications. They are not intended for human consumption or medical use…”Such unsupervised and surreptitious use of these chemicals is ringing alarm bells among experts. Endocrinologist Dr Nikhil Bhagwat is at a loss for words knowing that people are injecting three peptides at once. “I’m not sure if the combination of Retatrutide and Tesamorelin has ever been studied,” he said.The long-term risks for Retatrutide, he said, is still not known simply because it is under-trial. “GLP1s are life-saving but our understanding is still developing. Some on Semaglutide or Tirzepatide have only now begun reporting depression or gastroparesis.”Playin’ in the loopholesA user-turned-seller, Gurgaon-based Ankit (31, name changed), said his weekly imports always exceed $500. He gives customers two options: club their order with his to bypass the $50 shipping charge, or buy directly from his stock as needed. Payments to Chinese vendors are in cryptocurrency.Through online groups, Ankit says he’s part of a circle of at least 100 Retatrutide users in India. He struggled with obesity for years. Began importing peptides for himself last year, only to realise this could not be sustained without a business cycle: 40% profit on sales allows him to reinvest those funds into more purchases for himself and others.The scale of the operation is not insignificant: 50 to 60 import orders of a line of peptides for consumption and sales–5,000 vials labelled “research use” worth over Rs 20 lakh in a year–all under the nose of customs through cargo.Ankit explained the import process: small boxes arrive with compound names abbreviated. Vendors send these to freight forwarders who combine them with larger shipments of unrelated products. Commercial invoices are attached, and the goods are handed over to courier services.“In the declaration, only a few products, their quantity, and value are mentioned. When it reaches India, bare-minimum screening is done by Customs before release,” Ankit said. One of his orders was opened for the first time just weeks ago and still made it through.A Customs official explained that India’s trade facilitation policy aims to expedite cargo clearance for the ease of doing business. A computerised Risk Management System (RMS) profiles consignments as low, medium, or high risk. Low-risk items are ‘facilitated’ without further assessment or physical examination.‘Risk appetite’ increasesEmboldened by the validation from social media, consumers and sellers claim they understand the dangers of such unregulated medication. One must have a “risk appetite” because they can “never be sure what they’re consuming,” users say.Concerns regarding dosage or proportions occasionally manifest in online forums. Every now and then users on r/Retatrutide ask if a red cap means 10 mg or if blue means 5 mg, and if a colour means a “good” or “bad” batch. “Stop with this nonsense,” one user reacted. Another said: “Colour of caps means nothing and indicates nothing.”Users also form private groups to co-ordinate lab testing. They buy Chinese peptide kits from the same vendor at the same time to test and then share the results publicly. “Good results are valid for a short timeframe. They don’t hold true two months later,” Ankit said.United by peptidesIn 2025, imports of Chinese hormones and peptides to the US–mainly in Silicon Valley–doubled to $328 million, according to US Customs figures cited by American media. Similar trends have been documented in the UK. “The whole world imports this stuff from China, not just India,” says Ranjan, a comment that may well suggest the size of the problem.
