This Sleazy GLP-1 Prescription Site Is Using Deepfaked "Before-and-After" Photos of Fake Patients, and Running Ads Showing AI-Generated Ozempic Boxes
Consider MEDVi, an online prescription hub for GLP-1s. The company wants you to know that it's "serious" about helping you lose weight, according to its website, which entreats visitors to join "50,000+ MEDVi patients" who have turned to the service for weight loss help. That help, it says, comes in the form of "personalized care" and "highly effective weight loss medications," which it characterizes later as "doctor-approved." At a subscription starting price of under $200 with "no insurance required," it adds, it's a "budget-friendly" semaglutide option.
To drive its sales pitch home, MEDVi's website is packed with images of happy-looking, smiling people; the women in the smoothed-over pictures each wear sports bras in trendy colors, while the grinning men are decked out in T-shirts. There's also a slew of alleged customer success stories, which the company claims are from actual MEDVi patients.
"Sometimes you have to see it to believe it," reads a blurb of copy, alongside a series of bef0re-and-after weight loss photos. "GLP-1 medication can be life-changing and improves mood, sleep, energy and longevity. Photos, testimonials and results are from MEDVi patients."
Except, we couldn't help but notice, none of these alleged patients are real. Each image in the smiling, sports-bra'd crowd appears to have been generated from scratch using AI — and the before-and-after photos, more insidiously, are eerily convincing deepfakes, seemingly generated by lifting existing images of real people from across the web and using AI to alter their faces.
MEDVi's site represents layers of sophisticated trickery that, while previously much more difficult, have been made incredibly accessible through easy-to-use text and image generators and deepfake tools. As profiteers race to flood the web with disorienting AI-powered content, including around buzzy products like GLP-1 meds, the eternal advice to not believe everything you read — and now, everything you see — online is now more urgent than ever.
We first came across MEDVi in a deeply mangled digital advertisement found at the foot of a local news article showcasing a clearly AI-generated image of a box of Ozempic. To say nothing of the fact that the image used looks absolutely nothing like a real box of Ozempic, the AI-drawn box is covered with AI artifacts like twisted, gibberish letters, and includes a legume-like logo bearing no resemblance to the real logo used by Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk, which features an Apis bull.
"Solution fo [sic] injection," reads one prominent piece of text on the ersatz box, while another claims that the package contains a "solutån [sic] for injection in pre-filled pen."
"O)zenpic," reads a garbled and incorrectly-spelled Ozempic logo on the side of the box.
Intrigued by the blatancy of the ad's AI slop even in the heavily scrutinized world of pharmaceuticals, we decided to explore further.
Upon clicking the link, we were greeted by the website's first round of AI-generated people — who, though almost convincing, bear signs of AI-generation, like oddly-smooth curls and ears that blend mysteriously into the side of their head.
Just underneath these images, MEDVi includes a rotating list of logos belonging to websites and news publishers, ranging from health hubs like Healthline to reputable publications like The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Forbes, among others — suggesting that MEDVi is reputable enough to have been covered by mainstream publications.
Forbes, we found, did include MEDVi in a roundup of "Best Weight Loss Injections Of 2025," where it earned a "very good" rating of "9.4." The article appeared in Forbes Health, and includes a disclaimer noting that the page's content was "created independently from the Forbes Health Editorial team."
But otherwise, there was no sign of MEDVi coverage in the New York Times, Bloomberg, or the other outlets it mentioned. The only other remotely mainstream news coverage we could find of the company was in an US Weekly article from earlier this month, titled "6 Affordable GLP-1 Solutions After the FDA Bans Generic Medications" that also circulated on Yahoo. (Both the Forbes Health and US Weekly articles were affiliate content, meaning they were created outside of normal editorial channels, and the outlets earn money when readers click the links on the page.)
Perhaps nothing about MEDVi's site, though, is as egregious as its alleged patient before-and-after images.
Under text telling possible customers that the "results speak for themselves," MEDVi features side-by-side pictures of three purported patients: "Sandra K," "Michael P," and "Melissa C."
Contrasted with the stock photo-esque images featured elsewhere on the page, these images looked much less uncanny. Their bodies had more distinct, lifelike details, and objects and lettering seen in the background looked genuine. And when we dug through web searches to see if the images existed elsewhere, we realized that's because the photos of dramatic weight loss were indeed real. At least, from the neck down.
What appears to have happened is that the sloperators behind MEDVi took images that had already been floating around the web for years, and used AI-powered deepfake tech to convincingly alter their faces.
Take the side-by-side images of "Michael P," who MEDVi claims lost 48 pounds over just five months. We were able to find the original image in a Daily Mail article from 2018 — before semaglutide was even approved for weight loss purposes — that featured before-and-after photos of people who quit drinking, which was itself based on an undated Bored Panda article of "Before & After Pics That Show What Happens When You Stop Drinking."
Per Bored Panda and the Daily Mail, the man in the original picture is a Redditor who posts fitness and sobriety content under the username u/iDoneDo. The Daily Mail article timestamps the Redditor's weight loss journey as occurring between 2016 and 2017, which we confirmed by finding u/iDoneDo's original Reddit post.
That ages the image to long before the GLP-1 craze kicked off — and before AI started to fill the web with synthetic and deepfaked content.
Web searches for the other alleged patients yielded similar results: inspirational weight-loss imagery that's drifted around the web for years, and altered to disguise the actual people in the images as fake MEDVi customers.
To bolster its feigned legitimacy, MEDVi's site flaunts a lineup of doctors — full names and headshots included — that the startup claims to have partnered with.
"MEDVi physicians are here to guide you every step of the way," reads the webpage, "bringing both their expertise and genuine care to keep you supported.
When we searched for their names and images of these doctors, we discovered that they were, in fact, real medical professionals with LinkedIn pages, personal websites, and clear work histories. But to our surprise, these searches also returned yet another sketchy website for GLP-1 drugs. This one is called NuHuman, and offers a similar service, though it seems to be targeted specifically at the Chicago area. NuHuman's website is also crawling with AI slop, though once again features the same lineup of very real doctors.
We contacted each doctor to ask if they could confirm their involvement with MEDVi and NuHuman. We heard back from one of those medical professionals at the time of publishing, an osteopathic medicine practitioner named Tzvi Doron, who insisted that he had nothing to do with either company and "[needs] to have them remove me from their sites."
We also reached out to MEDVi, which didn't respond. When we tried to reach out to NuHuman with the site's listed email, the message bounced back.
We did find some Reddit comments, though, warning other netizens to steer clear of MEDVi, claiming serious allegations of possible HIPPA violations, shady billing practices, and even damaged vials of seemingly bogus drugs causing physical harm.
AI is making the web weirder and muddier than ever. And though MEDVi promises that "sometimes you have to see it to believe it," in our burgeoning AI-powered web, that's no longer the case.
More on AI slop: Slop Farmer Boasts About How He Uses AI to Flood Social Media With Garbage to Trick Older Women
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hypebeast
28 minutes ago
- Hypebeast
Nike Sues Edison Chen For $126 Million USD
CLOTfounderEdison Chenis being sued by former partnerNikefor breach of contract, demanding a sum of more than $126 million USD. Multiple sources, including@SneakerLegalhave shared the information, including the case number (2:25-cv-07447), cause (28:1332 Diversity-Breach of Contract), and the demand of $126,615,000. Other than these details, still little is known about the specific violations and events that led to the escalation. The lawsuit has emerged more than a year after Chen terminated his collaborations with the American sneaker label and began releasing products with adidas, like the CLOT Silk Gazelle and the CLOTAnthony EdwardsAE-1. For years, the CLOT designer worked closely with Nike on various models before partnering with the Three Stripes brand in 2023. In 2004, Chen founded CLOT in Hong Kong and began partnering with Nike in 2006. The brand still maintains special popularity in the Asia Pacific region for its exploration of Eastern heritage and aesthetics, but has become increasingly global thanks to partnerships with sportswear titans. As the brand charges forth with a new CEO at the helm, it seems that it's become more vigilant of its brand universe than ever, targeting direct collaborators like Chen and even designers outside of their direct sphere, likethe Shoe Surgeon. Nike's move to sue Chen comes right after the brand finally settled with the famous custom-sneaker designer, a de-escalation from the $60 million originally demanded. Stay tuned to Hypebeast as more details emerge on the case.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Biogen Sees Potential in Combining Alzheimer's and Obesity Drugs
If Novo Nordisk A/S 's wildly popular weight-loss drug succeeds in a highly anticipated trial for Alzheimer's disease, Biogen Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher doesn't see it as a roadblock for his company's medication. Rather, he sees it as an opportunity to potentially combine drugs and create a more potent therapy. 'As we look out over the next five years, we're probably going to see a treatment much like any other complex disease,' he said in an interview with Bloomberg News, meaning there will be 'different mechanisms of action that you need.'
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Forbes
A New Chapter For Diabetes—and Regenerative Medicine
For decades, the ambitious goal of regenerative medicine has been to replace damaged or lost tissues with healthy, functioning ones. Nowhere is this objective more compelling—or challenging—than in type 1 diabetes. Countless research efforts over the years have sought to restore these cells. Breakthroughs in cell engineering and transplantation are beginning to overcome long-standing roadblocks, and these recent advances are a significant achievement for regenerative medicine as a whole. For millions living with the constant demands and worries of type 1 diabetes, this is more than promising data. It's a moment that hints at a world where glucose monitors and needles might finally become relics of the past. With this, a life free from the daily burdens of diabetes suddenly feels not just possible, but Is Type 1 Diabetes? Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disorder defined by the immune system's destruction of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin is the hormone responsible for moving glucose from the bloodstream into the body's cells for energy. Without it, blood sugar rises to dangerous levels. Over time, it can damage virtually every organ. Most people diagnosed are children or young adults, and living with type 1 diabetes requires ongoing vigilance: regular blood glucose testing, carefully calibrated insulin administration, and persistent risk of life-threatening hypoglycemia. To survive, people with type 1 diabetes must monitor their blood sugar levels constantly. They frequently perform fingerstick tests throughout the day to check their blood glucose levels. Also, they must adjust their diet, exercise routine, and daily schedule to accommodate frequent insulin injections or an insulin pump. Despite advances in technology, keeping blood glucose within a safe range remains challenging, and the risk of life-threatening 'hypoglycemic' episodes—when blood sugar drops too low—is Stem Cell Therapy: Replacing What's Lost This is where the new therapies come into play. They go straight to the heart of the problem: the loss of the body's own insulin-producing cells. Instead of requiring patients to rely on lifelong injections, the focus is now on developing stem cells grown in controlled laboratory environments. These stem cells are engineered to become fully functional islet cells. These are the very clusters that regulate blood sugar in a healthy pancreas. The "off-the-shelf" nature of these cells is crucial. Earlier islet transplant procedures relied on donated organs, which are rare, variable in quality, and subject to lengthy waitlists. The engineered cells, on the other hand, are produced in large quantities. Also, they can be made available as needed. When infused, typically into the liver, these new cells integrate and begin responding to blood sugar levels in real time, releasing insulin as needed. In essence, the therapy is designed to restore the natural balance lost due to the disease. The promise of this approach is already becoming a the Latest Study The most recent results in the development of stem cell–derived therapies for type 1 diabetes stem from a clinical trial conducted by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. This study enrolled patients with established, severe type 1 diabetes. This is a group for whom current treatments often fail to prevent sudden and dangerous drops in blood sugar. Each patient in the trial received a single infusion of lab-grown islet cells, now referred to as zimislecel. To translate the science: the stem cells are first turned into insulin-producing islet cells in the lab. These are then infused into the patient's liver, not the pancreas. If successful, they begin sensing blood sugar levels and releasing insulin as needed, just like a healthy pancreas would. Think of this as swapping out a faulty part with a working one, rather than relying on external fixes. The results over twelve months were consistent and dramatic. All participants in the study were found to be producing their own insulin again. This was confirmed by checking bloodwork to verify that the islet cells were now active. Therefore, the transplanted cells integrated well, and the patients' bodies were able to produce insulin naturally for the first time in years. Even more remarkably, ten of these individuals were able to discontinue daily insulin injections entirely. Every participant met or surpassed the American Diabetes Association's stringent targets for glycemic control. Notably, none suffered severe hypoglycemic This Matters: The Science and Its Impact These results represent a shift in the care landscape for type 1 diabetes. Previous attempts at islet cell replacement used donor cells, which were in very limited supply. By creating islets from universal stem cells, this therapy can be scaled up. It brings the possibility of universal therapies with consistent quality and availability. This offers real hope to millions worldwide. It also signals a foundational advance in regenerative medicine itself. Demonstrating that we can produce, transplant, and integrate functional cell populations to cure a chronic, complex condition illustrates the practical power of stem cell technology. The methodology used here is already being adapted for other therapeutic targets: engineered heart muscle for cardiac repair, retinal cells for vision restoration, and dopaminergic neurons for Parkinson's disease. It establishes a blueprint for tackling similar disorders and builds a bridge from bench research to real-world clinical impact. These advances, however, are not without their complexities. Because the transplanted islet cells are not the patient's own, recipients currently require immunosuppressive medications to prevent rejection—a challenge shared by all current forms of tissue and organ transplantation. Although initial safety profiles are encouraging and side effects manageable, ongoing studies are exploring methods to reduce or eliminate immune suppression, such as gene editing and immune cloaking Road Ahead: What's Next? The achievements described here are far more than incremental progress in diabetes care. They represent proof-of-concept for the broad ambitions of regenerative medicine: restoring lost tissue function, curing chronic diseases, and making transformative treatments widely accessible. As these strategies mature and diversify, their impact will almost certainly extend well beyond any single disease. They offer a pathway to fundamentally change how we approach a broad spectrum of degenerative and autoimmune conditions. The future of regenerative medicine, once hypothetical and distant, now approaches with real hope for curing—not simply managing—a host of devastating chronic conditions.
