China's Black Market Drug Trade Threatens Tennessee Families
Gray-market GLP-1 drugs made in unregulated Chinese labs are reaching Tennesseans through regulatory loopholes and social media ads.
Across Tennessee, families are grappling with a modern public health and national security threat that is hiding in plain sight: foreign-sourced, gray-market pharmaceuticals. As demand has exploded for GLP-1 medications—such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound—so has the eagerness of transnational criminal networks to profit off unsuspecting patients. This isn’t merely a health or pricing debate; it’s a law enforcement issue, a public health crisis, and a major national security concern.
What Tennesseans may not realize is where these unapproved injectables and illicit ingredients originate. The bulk of raw, untested active pharmaceutical ingredients flowing into the U.S. comes directly from unauthorized, untraceable labs in China. Chinese-sourced businesses have aggressively exploited regulatory loopholes to ship raw chemicals and counterfeit medications straight across our borders, bypassing essential Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety standards.
That danger was made painfully clear in a joint state letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the National Security Council. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a 20-state coalition of attorneys general to expose alarming regulatory loopholes in the FDA’s "Green List" program—a system intended to expedite imports for vetted foreign manufacturers.
The attorneys general detailed how a Chinese chemical supplier on the Green List, Harbin Jixianglong Biotech Co., purchased knock-off semaglutide from an unregistered Chinese facility, repackaged and relabeled the ingredients under its own brand name, falsified manufacturing dates, and shipped the unapproved chemicals into the U.S. supply chain. Audit records revealed that some Chinese chemical exporters exploiting these exact oversight gaps maintain direct links to networks supplying illicit fentanyl precursors.
These aren’t harmless copies. When unapproved compounds and “research-grade” peptides cooked up in unregulated foreign labs cross our borders, they carry terrifying hazards: bacterial and insect contamination, heavy metal exposure, improper dosages, or unsterile injection equipment. Innocent people end up in the emergency room with severe organ damage or life-threatening infections simply because they unknowingly injected foreign chemicals mixed in unsterile overseas labs.
Protecting Tennessee from this predatory, foreign-backed gray market requires bold law-and-order leadership. Fortunately, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has been at the tip of the spear. Recognizing early on that foreign syndicates use slick social media ad campaigns on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook to peddle "generic" or "research-grade" injectables to adults and teenagers alike, General Skrmetti stepped up. He joined Senator Marsha Blackburn to demand a formal Federal Trade Commission investigation into these deceptive online marketing schemes that are harming Tennesseans and all Americans. Especially the social media ads targeting teens who do not need weight loss drugs and have not consulted with a physician.
Moreover, General Skrmetti led a 38-state bipartisan coalition urging federal law enforcement and the FDA to aggressively prosecute bad actors flooding American markets with foreign knockoffs. By standing alongside other state attorneys general to hold China-backed suppliers and deceptive online distributors accountable, Skrmetti is proving that Tennessee will not sit idly by while foreign bad actors undermine our pharmaceutical supply chain.
Border security, supply chain integrity, and drug enforcement go hand-in-hand. Federal regulators must act on the state coalition's warning to Secretary Rubio and immediately tighten oversight on imported pharmaceutical ingredients or halt these unverified shipments altogether.
For Tennesseans, the best line of defense is simple: stick to the front door of legitimate medicine. Never buy prescription injectables off social media or rogue websites. Always consult a physician and fill prescriptions through licensed community pharmacies dispensing FDA-approved products.
Our state leaders are doing their part to hold overseas bad actors accountable. It is time for federal authorities to match their resolve and secure our nation's drug supply once and for all.
Nicole Smith is the President and Founder of the Dignity Defense Institute.