https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/the-back-story-behind-the-first-18
Social.media posts he included:
Aakash Gupta
@aakashgupta
The NYT just profiled Medvi as the AI success story of the decade. $1.8B in projected revenue, 2 employees, Sam Altman's prediction made real.
Here's what the NYT didn't lead with.
Medvi received FDA Warning Letter #721455 in February 2026 for misbranding violations. Their clinician network OpenLoop suffered a data breach in January 2026 that exposed 1.6 million patient records. Futurism reported they used AI-generated deepfake before-and-after photos in their marketing. A class action lawsuit was filed in Delaware in November 2025. And now they're running 800+ fake doctor accounts on Facebook to sell compounded GLP-1s.
The company holds no proprietary technology, no licensed physician network, no pharmacy infrastructure. It outsources every regulated function to CareValidate and OpenLoop while keeping the customer relationship, checkout flow, and ad spend. The entire business is a marketing layer on top of rented infrastructure, and the marketing itself is built on fabricated medical credentials.
Hims did $2.4B in revenue last year with 2,442 employees and a 5.5% net margin. Medvi claims 16.2% net margin with 2 people. The margin difference tells you where the compliance spending went.
The AI built the website. The AI runs customer service. The AI generated the deepfake before-and-afters. And now 800+ fake doctor accounts are running paid ads on Facebook. The entire company is an AI-powered fraud machine that happens to also sell real drugs.
And from YouTube:
Gary points out that Futurism did a story on that scam company nearly a year ago - May 29, 2025:
https://futurism.com/medvi-ai-ozempic
Gary concludes:
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A friend of mine who has been tracking this for a while had sees Medvi as “a fraud-layer on top of also-scammy-but-possibly-less-illegal platforms”, speculating that “If there is any money there, they will be sued by all their suppliers and vendors, because I’m sure they’re in violation of every agreement in terms of compliance efforts, safe data handling, etc.” (The friend also is doubtful of the revenue reports, asking “why would this be the only thing they’re telling the truth about?”)
All in all, glorifying Medvi was not The New York Times’ finest hour.
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