People in the U.S. who bought or received compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide made by Empower Pharmacy may be covered by a proposed class action alleging Empower marketed the drugs as clinically supported, personalized and made to strict safety standards when they were not. No class has been certified and there is nothing to file yet.
Allegations Only · No Settlement Yet
This article describes a class action complaint. The statements below are unproven allegations. Empower Pharmacy has not been found liable, there is no certified class, and nothing to claim at this time. This page is informational and is not legal advice or medical advice.
What Is This About?
Two consumers filed a proposed nationwide class action on October 30, 2026 against Houston-based Empower Clinic Services, LLC, which does business as Empower Pharmacy, and its New Jersey subsidiary, Empower Clinic Services New Jersey LLC, which does business as Empower Pharma. The case is Forcier v. Empower Clinic Services, LLC, No. 3:26-cv-14183, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, assigned to Judge Robert Kirsch.The complaint claims Empower sold its compounded versions of the GLP-1 drugs semaglutide and tirzepatide to consumers as safe, effective, “clinically supported” and “personalized,” and as made under stringent quality standards. It alleges all three claims were false or misleading: that the products themselves were never clinically tested, that they were standard formulas in fixed doses rather than custom-made, and that regulators have repeatedly documented manufacturing problems at Empower. Empower has not yet responded to the complaint in court, and none of the allegations has been proven.
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Which Products Are Involved?
Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s FDA-approved Ozempic and Wegovy, and tirzepatide is the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s FDA-approved Mounjaro and Zepbound. The complaint names four compounded Empower products:- a semaglutide and cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12) injection
- a semaglutide and methylcobalamin orally disintegrating tablet (ODT)
- a tirzepatide and niacinamide (vitamin B3) injection
- a tirzepatide ODT, a tablet that dissolves in the mouth
According to the complaint, Empower sold these for “Weight Management.” The two named plaintiffs say they received the products through telehealth providers: a New York buyer who paid about $199 a month for Empower tirzepatide from mid-2025 to late 2025, and an Illinois buyer who paid $499 for a three-month supply of Empower semaglutide in May 2026. Both say they read Empower’s website first and would not have bought the products had they known what the complaint alleges.
Claim One: Clinical Studies of Other Companies’ Drugs
The complaint alleges Empower promoted its products with clinical trial results from the FDA-approved drugs, creating the impression that its own formulations had been tested. As examples, it quotes an archived Empower product overview for the tirzepatide and niacinamide injection that cited the SURPASS-5 trial, describing a 2.11% drop in hemoglobin A1C that “was proven during a 40-week period,” and an overview for the semaglutide injection that described four pre-approval weight-management trials.The complaint argues those trials studied the approved drugs alone, in approved forms and doses, and say nothing about tirzepatide combined with niacinamide, semaglutide combined with a B vitamin, or either drug taken as a dissolving tablet. It says tirzepatide has only been approved and studied as an injection, so whether it is absorbed from a tablet has never been established. The complaint also points out that Empower’s own ODT product pages, as of September 28, 2026, stated that the products had not undergone clinical trials.
Claim Two: “Personalized” Medications
Compounding is meant to tailor a drug to an individual patient, for example by leaving out an ingredient the patient cannot tolerate. The complaint says Empower described itself as “at the forefront of personalized healthcare” and called its products “personalized formulations,” but in fact sold a single formulation of each product in fixed sets of doses, with an added B vitamin as the main difference from the approved drugs. It cites Empower’s own statements that it filled 15,000 prescriptions a day in 2023 and that its New Jersey facility could produce 50 million vials a year.The complaint also relies on an FDA warning letter to Empower dated September 18, 2026, which followed a November 2025 inspection of Empower’s Houston facility. In that letter, the FDA said Empower’s tirzepatide and semaglutide injections “appear to be essentially copies” of FDA-approved products, that the volume Empower was producing suggested the claimed differences were “pretextual,” and that some prescription records lacked any prescriber determination of a significant difference while others used statements “repeated verbatim across many records.”
Claim Three: Safety and Manufacturing Quality
The complaint says Empower told consumers it “adheres to stringent regulations set by State Boards of Pharmacy, the FDA, and USP standards.” It alleges the regulatory record contradicts that, pointing to FDA inspection reports dating to 2015, four FDA warning letters, actions by pharmacy boards in seven states, and three product recalls between 2023 and 2025 for mislabeling or lack of sterility assurance. The September 2026 warning letter cited insanitary conditions in sterile production and current good manufacturing practice violations, and called Empower’s corrective actions deficient.The complaint also cites allegations a former Empower supply-chain director made in counterclaims in a Texas state-court case that Empower brought against him, including claims about ingredient sourcing. Those are allegations in a separate case and have not been decided.
What the FDA Says About Compounded GLP-1 Drugs
On its page about unapproved GLP-1 drugs used for weight loss, the FDA states that “compounded drugs are not FDA approved,” which “means the agency does not review compounded drugs for safety, effectiveness or quality before they are marketed.” The agency reports that as of May 31, 2026, it had received 990 reports of adverse events associated with compounded semaglutide and more than 730 associated with compounded tirzepatide. Those reports cover compounded products generally, not Empower’s specifically.What the Lawsuit Asks For
The complaint proposes a nationwide class of everyone in the United States who bought or received compounded GLP-1 medications made by either Empower company during the applicable limitations period, with New York and Illinois subclasses. Clinics, telehealth companies, pharmacies and medical spas that bought the products for resale or administration are excluded unless they were also end-user patients.It brings claims under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, New York General Business Law sections 349 and 350, and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, along with breach of express warranty and unjust enrichment. It seeks restitution of the amounts paid, damages, treble or punitive damages, disgorgement of profits, attorneys’ fees, a jury trial, and a court order requiring Empower to run corrective advertising. The complaint states that it does not seek to enforce the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and cites FDA findings only as evidence. Halper Law and Don Bivens, PLLC filed the complaint.
Separately, Eli Lilly sued Empower in the same court in April 2025 (No. 2:25-cv-02183) over compounded tirzepatide. That is a competitor’s lawsuit, not a consumer class action. The next step in the consumer case is Empower’s response to the complaint.
Questions
Which Empower Pharmacy products does the lawsuit cover?
The complaint names four compounded GLP-1 products: a semaglutide and vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) injection, a semaglutide and methylcobalamin orally disintegrating tablet, a tirzepatide and niacinamide injection, and a tirzepatide orally disintegrating tablet. The proposed class covers anyone in the U.S. who bought or received compounded GLP-1 medications made by the two Empower companies during the statute of limitations period.
Does the lawsuit claim Empower’s GLP-1 products caused injuries?
No. It is a consumer false-advertising case, not a personal injury case. The complaint claims buyers paid for products they would not have bought had Empower’s marketing been accurate, and it seeks refunds, damages and corrective advertising. The allegations have not been proven.
Is this the same case Eli Lilly filed against Empower?
No. Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro and Zepbound, sued Empower in the District of New Jersey in April 2025 (No. 2:25-cv-02183). The new case was brought by two individual buyers on behalf of a proposed class of consumers. The consumer complaint cites the Lilly suit for its count of tirzepatide clinical trials.
Is there money available from the Empower Pharmacy lawsuit?
No. The complaint was filed October 30, 2026. No class has been certified, there is no settlement, and there is nothing to file. Any payment would depend on a settlement or a judgment that has not happened.
Sources
- Forcier v. Empower Clinic Services, LLC, No. 3:26-cv-14183, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey — Class Action Complaint, filed October 30, 2026
- Court docket for Forcier v. Empower Clinic Services (CourtListener)
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Warning Letter 738238 to Empower Clinic Services, LLC dba Empower Pharmacy, September 18, 2026
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration — FDA’s Concerns with Unapproved GLP-1 Drugs Used for Weight Loss, content current as of October 1, 2026
