Tobi Ness credits her life to a cheaper, off-brand GLP-1 drug. But the company that sold it to her had a troubling record of safety violations.
SEATTLE — Toby Ness has tried it all.
Weight Watchers. Calorie Counting. Every diet promises results. Nothing worked for the Tacoma woman, who was surrounded by food from the moment she arrived at work as a general manager at a Pierce County Denny’s restaurant.
“I’ll see a particular food item on the market and I’ll think about those cheese sticks or burgers until I eat it,” she said. At her heaviest, she weighed 225 pounds and was constantly exhausted.
Then she discovered GLP-1, a blockbuster weight-loss drug that has changed the lives of millions of Americans. She started using discount coupons to buy Mounjaro, a brand-name GLP-1 drug, and the results were almost immediate.
“It’s great,” she said. “I lost 20 pounds in the first month.”
But the coupons eventually ran out and the price tagging couldn’t stop.
“If you don’t go to a telemedicine provider, you’re paying $1,100 (monthly) out of pocket,” she said. Can she afford it? “Can’t afford it.”
Then she discovered Mochi.
A cheaper alternative but with a troubling history
Mochi Health, an online-only telemedicine company, sells an off-brand compound version of Mounjaro to Ness for $199 per month, plus a membership fee. For patients who are priced out of brand-name GLP-1 drugs, the appeal is obvious.
Nice not to know what and what After four months of KING 5 investigation foundthat’s what goes on behind the scenes at a Kirkland, Washington, pharmacy that makes Mochi’s medications and ships them to thousands of patients across the country.
Former employees paint a dire picture.
“We asked every time, ‘How can we make more money from this?'” said Paul Meyers, the facility’s former laboratory manager.
“It’s not patient-centered. It’s more definitely about profit,” said Roxanne Elder, a former pharmacy assistant.
“Honestly, I think they were just in it for the money,” added Alexis Rodriguez, another former pharmacy employee. “They don’t care about patient safety.”
State health inspectors confirmed these concerns when they surprise inspection March 2025 at Aequita Pharmacy in Kirkland. Records show managers hired unlicensed workers and allowed them to perform the highly skilled job of compounding (mixing medications) in the facility’s clean rooms, a job that legally requires a pharmacist or pharmacy technician license. Inspectors also documented numerous quality control violations and the illegal importation of restricted drug ingredients from overseas laboratories.
patient hospitalized
The consequences are not just regulatory. Shawn Rose, a Chicago man who was a Mochi customer, said the drug sent him to the emergency room.
“Within about an hour to an hour and a half after taking the medication, I was admitted to the hospital,” he said. At one point, he said, doctors told him: “If you hadn’t come in, you might have died.”
Illinois health authorities are investigating Rose’s claims.
The Washington State Board of Pharmacy took action against the Kirkland facility last year, effectively closing the Aequita dispensary. But Mochi Health isn’t closing its doors just yet. The company has since moved its Washington state orders to KeyCompounding, a dispensary in Federal Way.
Key’s general manager Lisa Paris declined to answer KING 5’s questions, referring reporters to parent company Revelation Pharma. Revelation Pharma general counsel Richard Bennet responded in an email: “We have no comment at this time.”
Mochi Health also declined to comment on KING 5 and its CEO Myra Ahmad. refuse to answer questions An investigative reporter from NBC Bay Area approached her at a women’s conference in San Francisco in April.
still a believer
Ness has been following KING 5’s investigation closely. She knew what she had found. She is still taking medication.
“I guess I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve never had a problem,” she said.
When asked if Mochi’s history gave her pause, she was cautious but determined. “I think at some point, maybe they grew too fast,” she said. “If something goes wrong at that pharmacy, I truly believe there won’t be any issues at the other pharmacies.”
Does she believe the product is safe for her? “1,000 percent,” she said.
It is a belief born of indisputable results. In one year of taking the drug, Tobi Ness lost 110 pounds.
“Without these telemedicine providers, this life-changing medication changed my life and gave me my life back. I wouldn’t be able to have it,” she said.
Experts warn
Richard Molitor, a retired pharmacist from Washington state, was less reassured. He warned patients against using off-brand GLP-1 compounds and warned that the market’s desperation was being exploited.
“With these popular products, you find there are people who see an opportunity to make a quick buck,” he said. “Right now, people are marketing based on price. That’s probably the worst thing you can do when it comes to your health.”
He added that the seriousness of the violations at the Kirkland facility speaks for itself. “Unless you do something terribly wrong, you’re not going to be immediately arrested and shut down by the state.”
On May 1, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to a Chinese company, highlighting the potential dangers of off-brand GLP-1 drugs. Harbin Jixianglong Biotechnology Co., Ltd. failed inspections at its production facility in Limin Town, Hulan District, regulators said. U.S. inspectors found that the company purchased semaglutide, the main ingredient in brand-name drugs such as Ozempic, from an unknown company and then rebranded it as its own product. The safety of the ingredients cannot be determined, and some foreign laboratories have used research-grade peptides that are not suitable for human consumption. The warning letter did not name the U.S. pharmacies to which Harbin Jixianglong Biotechnology shipped its products, but the company’s products are now banned from entering the United States pending further investigation.
“This inspection and warning … have once again raised concerns about the growing market for compounded GLP-1 and bad actors who put profits over patient safety,” said Shabbir J. Imber Safdar, executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, a nonprofit that has been critical of the drug market’s bloated market and lack of government intervention.
Only brand-name GLP-1 drugs made by pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have received FDA approval. Mochi and a growing number of telemedicine companies operate in what regulators call a legal gray area, selling compounded versions of these patented drugs at extremely low costs.
For millions of Americans like Toby Ness — for whom brand-name drugs are simply out of reach — a gray area may be the only option.
This story is part of the KING 5 Investigators series $elling$kinny.
