General Discussion

The White House on Tuesday denied that President Donald Trump applied for access to an experimental obesity drug not yet on the market after Stat News reported that a 79-year-old man was approved to take it.

The health and science news outlet Stat News reported that the Food and Drug Administration and drug manufacturer Eli Lilly allowed one person — a 79-year-old man — special access to the drug retatrutide through a “compassionate use” program, citing three sources familiar with the matter. Those sources, Stat News reported, requested anonymity due to fear of reprisals.

According to the FDA, compassionate use is a “pathway for a patient with a serious or immediately life-threatening disease or condition to gain access to an investigational medical product (drug, biologic, or medical device) for treatment outside of clinical trials when no comparable or satisfactory alternative therapy options are available.”....

But on Tuesday, hours after the Stat News report was published, White House spokesman Kush Desai said on X that the “application was not for the President.” He went on to publicly bash the report’s author, Lizzy Lawrence, accusing her of being an “unserious gossip columnist.”

Lawrence responded on X that she had asked Desai, the FDA and HHS “multiple times” on Monday whether the application was for Trump. “No one answered my question directly,” she wrote. Desai called the report “baseless speculation” in a follow-up post.

National Institutes of Health Senior Clinician Ranganath Muniyappa requested the drug to treat the patient, who suffered from refractory obesity with obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension, Stat News reported. Muniyappa, who did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment, reportedly recommended against bariatric surgery because of the patient’s age and medical conditions.

The patient also took tirzepatide, an FDA-approved obesity drug by Lilly, for one year, “but experienced only moderate weight loss,” Stat News reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.