The news: Medvi, an online healthcare company that connects patients with providers prescribing compounded weight loss drugs and other high-demand treatments, has drawn widespread attention after a recent New York Times report revealed that despite having only a small staff and relying heavily on AI, it is on track to reach $1.8 billion in revenues in 2026, up from $401 million last year.

For context, Medvi is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) healthcare brand that acts as a middleman, handling marketing, user acquisition, and the digital experience, while outsourcing clinical care, prescribing, pharmacy fulfillment, and logistics to third-party partners.

Unpacking the news: Internet sleuths and reporters poked holes in Medvi’s business, surfacing potential regulatory risks like fake doctor testimonials on social media, federal warnings over illegal marketing, ineffective products, and records of patients manipulating intake forms to secure prescriptions.

• Meta platforms have been flooded with paid Medvi ads featuring fake doctors who promoted compounded weight loss drugs and erectile dysfunction medications.
• In February, Medvi received a letter from the FDA regarding misleading marketing language on its website about compounded medications.
• Medvi previously offered compounded oral tirzepatide tablets for weight loss on its website, but no oral form of tirzepatide currently exists on the market. (Eli Lilly manufactures tirzepatide, which is only available as an injection.) Some customer reviews claim they received oral tirzepatide that arrived wet, began melting quickly, and proved ineffective.
• Numerous people report that entering inaccurate weight information on Medvi’s platform can trigger approval for a prescription.

For his part, Medvi founder Matthew Gallagher said doctor portrayals in advertising are longstanding and that Medvi’s site includes proper disclaimers. He added that the FDA letter was sent to an affiliate, and the issue has since been resolved.

Why it matters: Medvi isn’t unique among online healthcare companies in the GLP-1 space using questionable marketing tactics to acquire patients, but its rapid growth in both customer base and revenue is unusual. Its sales suggest hundreds of thousands—if not more—customers subscribe through Medvi’s platform, raising questions about whether they were drawn in by misleading or fake ads and reviews, and how many may have potentially been exposed to unsafe products.

Implications for healthcare marketers and advertising platforms: Regulators are intensifying scrutiny of healthcare companies’ online marketing, with particular focus on ads for unregulated products like compounded GLP-1s. Given the widespread attention this story received and backlash to the company’s business practices, the FDA will likely face increased pressure to more rigorously review marketing claims and products in this space. Meanwhile, platforms like Meta should be enforcing the existing rules on AI-generated content—particularly against fake medical personas and scam ads.

Medvi’s growth also reflects a broader surge in patients turning to telehealth for quick prescription access and raises questions about whether these platforms adequately monitor patients and account for their medical histories. Physicians are already skeptical: 67% lack confidence in “nontraditional” providers guiding the wave of GLP-1 users, per a December 2025 Sermo survey. Doctors and their marketers ought to create educational videos for the platforms people turn to for GLP-1s, like social media, with guidance on how to spot unregulated or counterfeit products.

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