‘I’m not a doctor just FYI’: the influencers paid to hawk drugs on TikTok

In exchange for hawking a health product, a patient influencer can expect to earn anywhere from ‘the low hundreds to a few thousand dollars’ per post. Photograph: apomares/Getty Images

A young TikTok user has long, wavy hair, glowing makeup and a radiant smile. She’s slim and wants you to know exactly why: she’s using Wegovy, a prescription drug originally developed to treat diabetes that’s become a popular drug for weight loss.

In one clip, she picks up the medication from a pharmacy, lip-syncing to Cardi B, then demonstrates in a following clip how she injects it into her leg. A caption flashes across the screen: “I’m not a doctor just FYI.” Moments later she advises her nearly 20,000 followers on how to get started on the drug. “Start on the 0.25 mg,” she says directly into camera. “Work your way up with each dose. Do not skip doses. I do not want any of you feeling sick.”