The distinction that matters most

There are two very different things being sold, and they are constantly confused, sometimes deliberately.

Legitimate Indian generics

Made by licensed Indian manufacturers with approval from the national regulator, most of them supported by Indian clinical data. Sold as prescription medicines through licensed pharmacies, with a batch number, a manufacturer's insert and a GST invoice. Considerably cheaper than the original brands, entirely lawfully so, because the relevant Indian patent expired on 20 March 2026.

These are not fakes. Anyone telling you that a cheaper Indian product is automatically inferior or unsafe is either misinformed or has an interest in the answer.

Grey market and counterfeit

Vials labelled "research use, not for human use", sold by courier and through Telegram and Instagram. Unauthorised imports with no documentation. Sellers who will supply without any prescription. Counterfeit packaging of the well known brands. Product listed on general marketplace websites alongside industrial goods.

India has no legal category of compounded weight loss injection. There is no Indian equivalent of the American compounding pharmacy route. Everything in this box is unlicensed, and calling it "compounded" is a marketing word, not a regulatory one.

What actually goes wrong

The dose is not what the label says. There is no batch release testing behind it.
The molecule has degraded. These are peptides. Unregulated distribution through an Indian summer with no cold chain destroys them, and you cannot see it. The most likely outcome is that you pay and nothing happens.
It is not sterile. You are injecting it under your skin, weekly.
It is something else entirely. Seizures in India have included unapproved product sold through general trading websites. In July 2026, after an international alert on falsified product, the national regulator directed state regulators to tighten supply chain monitoring and to report any falsified product immediately.
If something goes wrong there is no trail. No batch number, no manufacturer, no way to report it, no way to warn anyone else.

Nine red flags

No prescription neededThese are prescription-only medicines in India. A seller willing to skip that is telling you what kind of seller they are.
Sold through social media or a general marketplaceInstagram, Telegram, WhatsApp catalogues, or a listing next to machine parts.
It arrives at room temperatureIf a product that requires refrigeration turns up warm, refuse the delivery. Do not accept it and argue later.
No GST invoice with the batch number and expiryThis is your single best protection and the easiest thing to insist on. A legitimate pharmacy will not blink.
No manufacturer's insert in the boxEvery legitimate pack has one.
The price is far below the marketGenuine Indian generics are much cheaper than the original brands, but there is a floor. A price well under everything a licensed pharmacy quotes is not a bargain.
Labelled for research, or not labelled in English at all"Research use only" means it was never made for a human being.
A discount code, an influencer, or a limited time offerPrescription medicines in India may not be advertised to the public. If it is being marketed to you like a supplement, that itself is the warning.
Nobody asked you a single medical questionNo weight, no history, no bloods, no examination. The assessment is not an obstacle to treatment, it is the treatment.

How to buy safely, in one line

A prescription from a doctor who has examined you, taken to a licensed pharmacy that gives you a GST invoice showing the batch number and expiry, for a product whose box contains the manufacturer's insert. Keep the invoice. That is the whole method.

If you think you have been sold something fake

Stop using it.
Keep the box, the vial or pen, and the invoice or the chat with the seller. Do not throw any of it away.
Bring it to us. We will look at it with you.
The Telangana Drugs Control Administration invites the public to report illegal sale, unauthorised promotion and misuse of these medicines. Reporting it is worth doing, and we will help you do it.

Why we are telling you this rather than selling you something. Caspian does not sell any medicine through this website and takes no margin on obesity treatment. We have no financial reason to point you at one product over another, which is exactly why this page can say what it says.

Sources: CDSCO advisory of 10 March 2026 and enforcement order of 18 May 2026. Telangana Drugs Control Administration public advisory, 24 March 2026. Press Information Bureau statements on the national inspection drive. WHO Medical Product Alert on falsified product.

Fake and grey market weight loss products