No. Retatrutide is an investigational drug. The FDA has not approved it for any use, its safety and effectiveness have not been established, and it is not lawfully available for prescription or purchase.
Retatrutide (research designation LY3437943) has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for any indication. It is an investigational drug: a regulatory status meaning it may be used only in clinical research conducted under an Investigational New Drug application.
An investigational drug has no approved labeling, no established safety profile, and no established effectiveness for any use. Those are the output of a completed development program and an FDA review. They do not exist in advance of one.
Clinical development runs in stages, each answering a narrower question than the last.
Phase 1 studies are small and focus on how the drug behaves in the body and on initial tolerability.
Phase 2 studies are larger and begin to examine dosing and effects, still on a preliminary basis.
Phase 3 studies are large trials intended to produce the evidence a regulator needs in order to decide. Retatrutide is in this stage.
After Phase 3, a sponsor may submit a New Drug Application, and the FDA conducts its own review of the underlying data before reaching a decision. Being in Phase 3 describes where testing stands. It does not indicate that approval is near or likely.
FDA approval is what establishes that a drug's benefits have been shown to outweigh its risks for a defined use, that it is manufactured to a consistent standard, and that its labeling describes its effects and hazards accurately. Without approval, none of those assurances exists.
Public interest in retatrutide has created a market for unapproved products sold under its name. Some online sellers and overseas pharmacies offer it as a "research chemical" or for personal use. Those products sit outside every regulatory control: nobody has verified their identity, purity, potency, or sterility, and the buyer has no way to check.
Two GLP-1-class active ingredients have completed FDA review for chronic weight management and are available by prescription: semaglutide, marketed as Wegovy for chronic weight management and as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes; and tirzepatide, marketed as Zepbound for chronic weight management and as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes.
Compounded preparations of semaglutide and tirzepatide are dispensed by licensed pharmacies under the compounding statutes. Compounded preparations are a separate regulatory category from the approved brand products named above: they are not themselves FDA-approved and are not reviewed by the FDA for safety or effectiveness.
Which of these, if any, is appropriate for you is a clinical judgment for a licensed provider who knows your health history.