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VietnameseGriffin: ‘Consumers should be able to seek legitimate treatment without fear of the drugs they purchase being ineffective, or worse, outright harmful’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin released the following statement after he joined a bipartisan coalition of state and territory attorneys general calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take swift action against bad actors who are endangering consumers with counterfeit forms of weight-loss and diabetes drugs:
“Legitimate weight-loss and diabetes treatments such as Mounjaro, Zepbound, Ozempic, and Wegovy, known as GLP-1 drugs, have risen in popularity in recent years. Unfortunately, where legitimate and useful goods and services arise, fraudulent actors are likely to follow. In this case, counterfeit drugs, often originating from overseas in places like China, are being sold online to unsuspecting American consumers, including Arkansans.
“I have joined a bipartisan group of attorneys general calling on the FDA to curtail the distribution of counterfeit drugs being distributed online. Consumers should be able to seek legitimate treatment without fear of the drugs they purchase being ineffective, or worse, outright harmful.
“The FDA has the expertise and resources to go after these counterfeit drug manufacturers. Our letter urges them to exercise their ability to shut these operations down and to work with state pharmacy boards to ensure that GLP-1 drugs are compounded safely.”
Joining Arkansas on the letter co-led by South Carolina, Colorado, Illinois, and Tennessee is Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
To read the full letter, click here.
To download a PDF of this release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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