The Cat Drug Black Market

Summary

Podcast Summary: Hyperfixed – "The Cat Drug Black Market"

Introduction

In the July 17, 2025 episode of Hyperfixed, host Alex Goldman delves into the clandestine world of the feline drug black market. This episode, released by Hyperfixed—a member of Radiotopia—explores the intricate and shadowy network that emerged to save cats suffering from feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a once-fatal disease. Through interviews with cat owners, veterinarians, and key figures in the movement, Goldman unravels how an illegal drug became a beacon of hope for countless cats and the ensuing ethical and legal dilemmas.

Marlena’s Story: Otto’s Battle with FIP

The episode begins with Marlena from Portland, Oregon, sharing her harrowing experience with her cat, Otto. Initially energetic and playful, Otto’s sudden decline led Marlena to an emergency vet where he was diagnosed with FIP, a disease deemed 100% fatal without treatment. Faced with despair, Marlena was advised to seek experimental treatments through a Facebook group, leading her to obtain the black market drug GS441524.

• Notable Quote:
  Marlena [03:20]: “I wanted to look at kittens, but I wasn't, of course, going to get one. And then I went in, and there was a tiny little kitten who had just had his eye removed… I blacked out and came to with a cat in a box in my car.”

• Notable Quote:
  Marlena [07:46]: “She's like, yeah, I shouldn't tell you this, but by the way, you can get drugs for this if you go to this Facebook group.”

Despite the risks, Marlena pursued the treatment, which dramatically improved Otto’s condition, raising more questions about the legitimacy and origin of the drug.

Dr. Niels Peterson: The Pioneer Behind GS441524

Central to the story is Dr. Niels Peterson, a professor emeritus of veterinary medicine at UC Davis. Dr. Peterson’s decades-long research unraveled that FIP is caused by a mutated form of the feline coronavirus. In the mid-1990s, his team discovered that the antiviral drug GS441524 could effectively treat and even cure FIP.

• Notable Quote:
  Dr. Niels Peterson [12:16]: “At the time, there was some rumble about this new disease that suddenly appeared in cats.”

• Notable Quote:
  Dr. Peterson [15:01]: “I spent a lot of time interested in what's called the pathogenesis… did some work trying to develop vaccines, which proved ineffective.”

Despite significant breakthroughs and promising results published in 2018 and 2019, Gilead Sciences, the company behind GS441524, chose not to pursue FDA approval for veterinary use. Instead, they focused on developing remdesivir for the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, effectively halting the availability of the feline treatment through legal channels.

• Notable Quote:
  Dr. Niels Peterson [21:04]: “We didn't go to the FDA. Oh, we did not go to the FDA because we were unable to obtain the rights for GS.”

The Rise of the Black Market: FIP Warriors

With the legal pathway blocked, individuals like Robin Kintz stepped in to bridge the gap. After losing her cats Henry and Fiona to FIP, Robin founded the FIP Warriors Facebook group to distribute GS441524 illegally. This group became a massive, coordinated effort to save cats when no legal options existed.

• Notable Quote:
  Robin Kintz [30:26]: “I'm currently topped out at 8 and in the world of crazy cat people, that's actually not a lot…”

• Notable Quote:
  Robin Kintz [34:07]: “What we'll do is ask a whole bunch of intake information that will tell us a lot about your cat's symptoms.”

The FIP Warriors established a sophisticated system for vetting members, sourcing the drug from manufacturers (primarily in China), and overseeing treatment protocols. Despite challenges such as COVID-19 disruptions and faulty drug batches, the group adapted by diversifying suppliers and ensuring product quality through independent testing.

• Notable Quote:
  Robin Kintz [38:13]: “The admins are the folks that basically connect to each person with a sick cat and advise and guide through the treatment process…”

The collective efforts of nearly 90,000 members reportedly saved around 250,000 cats by providing access to a treatment that was otherwise unattainable.

Ethical and Legal Dilemmas: Veterinarians in the Crossfire

As the effectiveness of GS441524 became undeniable, the veterinary community found itself in a moral quandary. Veterinarians, bound by the oath to alleviate animal suffering, were torn between the legality of the black market drug and the desperate need to save lives. This led to a surge in recommendations for FIP Warriors among vets, further expanding the reach of the illegal drug distribution network.

• Notable Quote:
  Dr. Bruce Kornreich [41:35]: “Veterinarians, we take an oath to alleviate animal suffering. So on the one hand, if a veterinarian had an owner come in and say, my cat is dying of FIP, can you help me? That was sort of like, I have to help them.”

However, the lack of regulation meant that quality control was inconsistent, leading to subpar batches and tragic losses, which eventually eroded trust within the community.

• Notable Quote:
  Robin Kintz [46:41]: “So to the people that are worried about commissions and being ripped off, I say look elsewhere for something to complain about. Is your cat alive?”

The Downfall: Scandal and Fragmentation

By 2022, the FIP Warriors faced significant challenges, including a major public scandal that involved federal law enforcement. Accusations of fraud and mismanagement surfaced, leading to the group’s internal collapse. The once-unified network fragmented, undermining the very mission it was founded upon.

• Notable Quote:
  Unnamed Cat Owner [46:35]: “It was like a wake-up call that we should never have been doing this in the first place.”

Conclusion: Lessons from the Shadows

The episode concludes by reflecting on the complexities of operating in the gray areas of legality to fulfill critical needs. While the FIP Warriors initially succeeded in creating a life-saving pipeline for cats, their story serves as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of unregulated medical interventions and the ethical dilemmas they pose.

Final Thoughts

Alex Goldman masterfully weaves personal stories with expert insights to paint a comprehensive picture of the FIP drug black market. The episode not only highlights the desperation and resilience of cat owners but also underscores the broader implications of pharmaceutical monopolies and the lengths to which individuals will go to save lives.

For more detailed explorations and bonus content, listeners are encouraged to visit hyperfixpod.com and join the Hyperfixed community.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Marlena [07:46]: “She's like, yeah, I shouldn't tell you this, but by the way, you can get drugs for this if you go to this Facebook group.”

• Dr. Niels Peterson [12:16]: “At the time, there was some rumble about this new disease that suddenly appeared in cats.”

• Dr. Niels Peterson [21:04]: “We didn't go to the FDA. Oh, we did not go to the FDA because we were unable to obtain the rights for GS.”

• Robin Kintz [30:26]: “I'm currently topped out at 8 and in the world of crazy cat people, that's actually not a lot…”

• Robin Kintz [34:07]: “What we'll do is ask a whole bunch of intake information that will tell us a lot about your cat's symptoms.”

• Dr. Bruce Kornreich [41:35]: “Veterinarians, we take an oath to alleviate animal suffering. So on the one hand, if a veterinarian had an owner come in and say, my cat is dying of FIP, can you help me? That was sort of like, I have to help them.”

• Robin Kintz [46:41]: “So to the people that are worried about commissions and being ripped off, I say look elsewhere for something to complain about. Is your cat alive?”

• Unnamed Cat Owner [46:35]: “It was like a wake-up call that we should never have been doing this in the first place.”

Transcript

[Frances Frey]

Hi, I'm Frances Frey. And I'm Ann Morris and we are the hosts of a new TED podcast called Fixable. We've helped leaders at some of the world's most competitive companies solve all kinds of problems. On our show, we'll pull back the curtain and give you the type of honest, unfiltered advice we usually reserve for top executives. Maybe you have a co worker with boundary issues or you want to know how to inspire and motivate your team. No problem is too big or too small. Give us a call and we'll help you solve the problems you're stuck on. Find Fixable Wherever you listen to the.

[Alex Goldman]

Podcast, this episode of Hyperfix is brought to you by mood.com Look, I'll be honest, things are pretty bad out there right now. The world is unpleasant. Dealing with reality is frankly not where I'm at at the moment. So can you blame me for wanting to find some THC gummies to help turn my brain off so that I don't have to think about it for a couple hours at the end of the day? And did you know that there's an online cannabis company that ships federally legal THC right to your door? And they found a way to combine THC with carefully selected functional ingredients to target nearly every mood and health concern you can think of, not just deep depression at the way late stage capitalism keeps us working all the time, even when we're not actually at our jobs. I'm talking about Mood.com's incredible line of functional gummies and you can get 20% off your first order. [e-mail] with promo code HYPER FIXED, forget one size fits all supplements that only get you high. Mood's functional gummies are optimized to kick in in as little as 15 minutes and take you to the mood you're looking for, which in my case is complete catatonia. Best of all, not only is every Mood product backed by 100 day satisfaction guarantee, but as I mentioned, listeners get 20% off their first order with code HYPERFIXED. So head to mood.com to find the functional gummy that matches exactly what you're looking for and let Mood help you discover your perfect mood. And don't forget to use the promo code hyperfixed when you check out to save 20% on your first order. Hi everyone, this is Sari Safra Sukenik, Hyperfix producer, and I wanted to give.

[Sari Safra Sukenik]

A quick heads up before we start.

[Alex Goldman]

This episode has some graphic and at times upsetting details about very sick cats. We know that can Be tough to hear, but we promise no cats were harmed in the making of this hyperfixed episode.

[Marlena]

Cat lady. I'm a little neutral about it. I see the issues with it.

[Alex Goldman]

This is Marlena. She lives in Portland, Oregon. She works as a behavioral health consultant. And although she's never really identified with the term cat lady, she can understand why people might use it when talking about her. Sure, she's a lady who loves cats, and she talks about them constantly, and she's lived with a cat for most of her life. But the idea of having multiple cats at the same time, that was a bit too cat lady for Marlena, that is, until one day two years ago on her birthday, actually, when Marlena made the mistake of going to a kitten event at a pet store.

[Marlena]

I wanted to look at kittens, but I wasn't, of course, going to get one. And then I went in, and there was a tiny little kitten who had just had his eye removed. So he had purple stitches over one side of his face, and he was way younger than the rest. And I, like, was so sad that I blacked out and came to with a cat in a box in my car.

[Alex Goldman]

Marlena brought the cat home, and she called him Otto, short for Ottoman. And over the next eight months, he grew into his own little personality. Otto loved to cuddle and play, and he adored her other cat, Doodle. And he had a purr so loud that you could hear it across the room. But also, Otto seemed to be just a little bit insane.

[Marlena]

He's, like, laying on houseplants. He's, like, tearing books out of the bookshelves, like, ripping the calendar off the wall. Like, Doodle had never done a single thing wrong in her life, and I wasn't prepared for having a criminal in my home.

[Alex Goldman]

But having a criminal cat is not the reason Marlena reached out to us. The reason she reached out is, is actually because of the strange series of events that transpired last year when her crazy little cat suddenly stopped acting so crazy. It started in February of 2024. And at first, all Marlena noticed was that Otto didn't seem as energetic and playful as he usually is. And then he stopped eating regular food, and then he stopped eating treats. And then things got a little scary.

[Marlena]

So it was early morning on a Saturday. I was sitting on my bed. I don't know, like, on my phone or something maybe, and Otto kind of, like, jumped on the bed and then, like, looked at me for a second and then twisted his head over to one side and got kind of, like.

[Alex Goldman]

Stuck, like, that for a second, he wasn't jerking. It didn't present like a seizure, but he clearly wasn't able to move his head. And then the spell just sort of broke. He laid down and went to sleep as if nothing had happened. But Marlena couldn't stop thinking, oh, my God, something just happened.

[Marlena]

And I often, like, I catastrophize a lot, so I often have these feelings of like, something's really wrong here when it's not. And so I remember trying to, like, calm myself down, like, I'm not a vet. Like, I don't really know, probably is not a big deal, but, like, really, this gut reaction of, like, this is bad. This is a big deal.

[Alex Goldman]

Marlena scooped up her cat and rushed him to the emergency vet, where they immediately recognized the seriousness of the situation. At that point, they couldn't say for sure what was happening to Otto, but they had a suspicion, and that suspicion wasn't good. Still, the vet told Marlena to hang tight. They told her they were going to run some tests and that they'd call her when they had a better sense of what was going on.

[Marlena]

I was devastating, and I remember, like, feeling really bad that I hadn't gotten him a stocking for Christmas because my other cat has a stocking that I hang every Christmas. And I was like, oh, my God, he's not going to live to another Christmas. I didn't even get him a stocking. Like, that was my first instinct for some reason.

[Alex Goldman]

When the vet finally called Marlena, it was 11pm on a Sunday night, which is not typically the time you would expect a call from a doctor, let alone an animal doctor. But the results of the blood test had just come back, and there was urgent news to share. Marlena's cat was suffering from feline infectious peritonitis, which is better known by its acronym, fip. FIP is a viral disease most commonly found in cats under two years old. It often spreads through contact with fecal material and shared litter boxes and then wreaks havoc on their bodies.

[Marlena]

It just kind of like destroys all their organs at once. They're stomachs fill with fluids. Their lungs get little nodules. It's like a bunch of really messed up stuff. And, like, within a month, usually they have to be put down.

[Alex Goldman]

The vet confirmed that Otto would die without treatment, but she also said there was nothing that she or any other vet could prescribe to save him. Not because there weren't medications available to treat fip, but because all the medications that were available were illegal in the United States. Now, obviously, Marlena is heartbroken and terrified. She's thinking that her craz little cat is going to die and that there's nothing she can do to stop that from happening. But this is the moment when things started to get weird, because right before the vet hung up the phone, she told Marlena this one other thing.

[Marlena]

She's like, yeah, I shouldn't tell you this, but by the way, you can get drugs for this if you go to this Facebook group.

[Alex Goldman]

What?

[Marlena]

Yeah.

[Alex Goldman]

Your vets pointed you in the direction of, like, black market cat drugs?

[Marlena]

Yes, the emergency vet told me where to get black market cat drugs.

[Alex Goldman]

And the thing is, Marlena ordered those black market cat drugs. She went to the Facebook page, which sent her to another Facebook page, which somehow landed her on some random website. And the very next day, she found an unmarked package waiting on her doorstep. Inside were vials of a mysterious liquid called GS441524, as well as instructions for how to inject it into her cat. And the weirdness didn't stop there. Marlena told me that over the next three months, she sent thousands of dollars via PayPal to order more and more of this liquid. She told me that Otto's treatment plan was dictated by an online chat bubble and that for some strange reason, her IRL vet showed tremendous to this bubble. But the weirdest part of it all was that this black market drug, it actually cured her cat. What the hell did you stumble upon?

[Marlena]

Yeah, that's what I want to know. That's why I'm, like, still a year later, can't get over this.

[Alex Goldman]

Alex. I'm Alex Goldman, and this is Hyperfix. On this show, listeners write in with their questions, big and small, and I solve them, or at least I try. And if I don't, I at least give a good reason why I can't. But this week, we're doing something a little bit different. Because even though Marlena's cat Otto, is doing better, Marlena still has so many questions about this strange process she went through. So what sort of questions are you left with? What do you want to know?

[Marlena]

I want to know who these people are. Are they vets? Are they, like, cat experts? How did they get involved in this in the first place? How did they set this whole thing up? Just like any more information on it?

[Alex Goldman]

And once we started digging around on this question Marlena submitted, we realized that what we thought was a rabbit hole was actually a massive network of tunnels spanning across continents and currencies. It had its own culture, its own rules. Its own hierarchy and the story of how and why it was built, the story of what the hell is going on here, it just simply couldn't be told within the confines of our usual format. So after the break, the first episode in a three part series we are calling the Cat Drug Black Market. When Marlena first came to us, she was looking for any information about what had happened to her a year earlier. About the mysterious liquid that had somehow cured her little one eyed cat from an otherwise fatal disease. About the weird whisper network that had led her to that liquid. About why her IRL vet had shown so much deference to the same network that it honestly really creeped her out. And most importantly, why was all of this necessary? Why wasn't this treatment available through normal legal channels? So we did what we do best and we started clicking around and we found that the answer to all of those questions begins with the story of this guy. The only question I have for you at the beginning is how do I pronounce your name?

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

Niels Peterson.

[Alex Goldman]

Oh, exactly like it. Looks great. Today Dr. Niels Peterson is 82 years old. He's a professor emeritus of veterinary medicine at UC Davis. And he's widely considered to be one of the real rock stars in the field of small animal pathology. This man has written dozens of influential articles on the subject. He's authored two classic textbooks. And while there's no way to say for sure how many cats have been saved by his work, it's easily hundreds of thousands. And yet it's possible he never would have accomplished any of that stuff were it not for the fact that the year he started studying veterinary science was 1963.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

At the time, there was some rumble about this new disease that suddenly appeared in cats.

[Alex Goldman]

The disease being rumbled about was fip. Earlier that year, it had been first identified by a researcher in Boston. And suddenly all these other researchers were beginning to find it in other parts of the country. They knew that it typically caused an intense inflammation in the lining of the abdomen, which is why they called it peritonitis, and that it killed 100% of the cats that develop it. But nobody actually knew what this thing was or where it came from. It was just a total mystery. And at the time, it didn't seem like 20 year old Niels Peterson was going to be the person to figure it out. I mean, for one thing, he wasn't studying cats. He'd committed himself to studying cows. But cats had always been Dr. Peterson's first love. He grew up on a poultry farm where an army of feral cats Was charged with keeping away the rats. And over time, he began taking an interest in the diseases they contracted. So when the labs at UC Davis started getting their own FIP cats for examination, Dr. Peterson made a point of going down there to see what all the rumbling was about.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

So I actually was able to see some necropsies of the disease very early, and I was just totally enthralled with it.

[Alex Goldman]

These cats with FIP had visible lesions Unlike anything that had ever been seen in any species. They were equal parts horrifying and fascinating. And Dr. Peterson wanted to be one of the people who helped uncover the mystery of their origins. So he made a decision. He abandoned the study of cows and turned his attention to feline diseases, namely.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

FIP, and basically made it my lifetime endeavor.

[Alex Goldman]

In 1969, he co authored one of the earliest studies on FIP. What it looks like, how it presents itself, and how to diagnose it. That study paved the way for another UC Davis student, A year later, to publish another paper on FIP with a discovery that would become the foundation of Dr. Peterson's own research over the next five decades. And that discovery was that FIP is caused by a coronavirus. Now, feline coronavirus is actually kind of no big deal. At worst, it causes mild diarrhea. So Dr. Peterson knew there had to be something transforming this benign coronavirus into this other deadly thing. But the answer continued to evade him.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

I spent a lot of time interested in what's called the pathogenesis, how the virus causes disease, did some work trying to do vaccines, develop vaccines, which proved ineff Discovered a feline immunodeficiency virus, A virus related closely to hiv in cats. And a lot of stuff kind of sidelined my FIP interest just for a while.

[Alex Goldman]

Then, in the mid-90s, he had a breakthrough. Dr. Peterson and his team at UC Davis discovered that the thing transforming this otherwise totally benign virus into this totally deadly one was a mutation happening inside the bodies of certain cats. So when regular feline coronavirus Made its way inside of a host, about 20% of cats experienced this mutation. And those cats, the vast majority of them, were able to fight it off. But if the cat had a compromised immune system because of being intensely inbred, or because of the stress of living in shelters or because they'd had some other health condition that made them more susceptible, perhaps like an eye infection so severe that they end up losing an eye, like Marlena's cat, Otto. Those cats might not be able to fight it off. And from there, the virus Would replicate so aggressively that it would become impossible to stop. And realizing that gave Dr. Peterson an idea.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

Ultimately, I realized that maybe antiviral drugs were the way to go.

[Alex Goldman]

Antiviral drugs are obviously very common in human medications. We use them to treat everything from herpes to the flu. But unlike antibiotics, which target bacterial infections pretty generally, Antivirals generally need to be tailored to each virus specifically. And when Dr. Peterson first got the idea to apply antiviral drugs to feline coronavirus, There were no antivirals that had been tailored to treat coronaviruses. However, there were some companies working on antiviral treatments for other RNA viruses, and this one RNA virus immediately came to mind.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

To make a long story short, when we first got interested in trying to apply antiviral drugs to this disease, My interest went to Ebola. At that time, in around 2015 16, there was these huge outbreaks of Ebola in Africa, and there was this huge interest in developing antiviral drugs.

[Alex Goldman]

And one of the companies that was doing that was called Gilead Sciences. The company had been working on treatments for SARS and mers, and it seemed that they were making progress on Ebola. So Dr. Peterson reached out to this guy he knew at Gilead. I don't know why I called him this guy, he was a chief executive at the company. But anyway, Dr. Peterson reached out to this guy and told him about this theory that he had that maybe the antiviral compounds they were researching for Ebola would have some application for this mutation of feline coronavirus he'd been studying. And the guy was like, sure, we'll send some right over.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

It took us over a year to go through all the secrecy agreements and get a relationship where we could finally get some of their compounds. Look at them.

[Alex Goldman]

Dr. Peterson tested the compounds on feline tissue cultures, and what he found was amazing. There was not one, but two different compounds that seem to be blocking the growth of coronaviruses in the tissue samples already. This is a massive discovery because until this moment, nobody had ever found a compound that was capable of doing this. And that may sound unbelievable to you now, but it's important to understand that until very recently, nearly all the coronavirus research that was done was done on the veterans side of medicine, which is chronically underfunded. So Peterson is like, awesome, this is amazing. Let's move into trials with actual animals. But he can't study both of these compounds. He has to pick one. Luckily, the choice is pretty simple. These two compounds have the same active ingredient. They worked similarly to block the Reproduction of coronavirus cells, and they appear to be equally effective doing it. So Peterson chose the parent compound, the original one. That compound, GS441524, the weird liquid that saved the life of Marlena's cat, Otto. The GS in GS 441524 stands for Gilead Sciences. The other compound, which is called GS5734, will end up being equally important to the story, just not in the same way.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

Then we proceeded to do experimental infections of cats with FIP virus and were able to cure them readily with GS alone. So then once we were able to treat experimental infection, we moved into field trials against naturally occurring disease, and we found that we could cure 90% or more of cats that had feli infectious perioditis, which up to that time was 100% fatal disease.

[Alex Goldman]

In 2018, after decades of research, Dr. Peterson had finally identified a treatment that worked. And it worked phenomenally well. He published a paper detailing his findings in 2018, and then a second one in the Journal of Feline Medicine and surgery in 2019. Suddenly, the dream of a world where no cats have to die from fip seemed not only possible, but imminently within reach. The only hurdle left to clear was FDA approval. Just very briefly, how long were you developing this drug before you went to the fda?

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

We didn't go to the fda. Oh, we did not go to the FDA because we were unable to obtain the rights for GS.

[Alex Goldman]

You might say that what happened was unprecedented. A lot of people were throwing that word around at the time, because just months after Dr. Peterson and the UC Davis team published their second paper announcing the discovery of this life saving cat drug, the pharmaceutical company that owns the rights to that drug was beginning to turn their attention elsewhere. In December of 2019, a cluster of patients in Wuhan, China, had been hospitalized with a pneumonia like disease that didn't respond well to treatment. A month later, the disease, now identified as the novel coronavirus, had taken its first life. A month after that, there were thousands of cases across dozens of countries. And the World Health Organization had given the disease a new name, Covid 1919.

[Dr. Bruce Kornreich]

As of today, we have 15 cases of COVID 19 that have been detected in the United States.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

Today, the World Health Organization officially announced that this is a global pandemic. Nearly a quarter of a million deaths.

[Alex Goldman]

And tens of millions on unemployment. COVID 19 was spreading rapidly, and because there were no real treatment options, it was killing thousands, then millions of people who became infected with it. Lockdown orders were put in place, Supply chains started breaking down, and the Global economy was under imminent threat. So whoever created the first treatment option stood to make billions of dollars in government contracts. And the one company with a compound that had just proven its ability to fight coronaviruses was Gilead.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

And I noticed there was a change in the way they would respond to me or not respond to respond to me.

[Alex Goldman]

Dr. Peterson knew that Gilead was planning to synthesize a version of their G's compound for treatment of COVID 19. But he saw no reason why that should impact the cat drug that he'd been working on.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

At first we thought, well, that's great, because we can use the active ingredient possibly to treat cats. Then they can use their altered form of the active ingredients to treat humans.

[Alex Goldman]

Gilead didn't see things so plainly. And when they handed down their decision, it landed with a heavy blow. Dr. Peterson and the UC Davis research team would not be able to pursue animal use for any of Gilead's antiviral drugs. Peterson says the company was worried that by pursuing a similar drug for animal use, it would endanger their ability to get a human drug through FDA approval. And in that moment, the human need was too great to jeopardize.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

So they were very adamant. They said, no, we can't do it because there's a huge need in the human side, and that's our interest. We don't have a veterinary arm, you know. And so basically, we're a human company, and that's where we're going to stand, you know.

[Alex Goldman]

Dr. Peterson was devastated. He'd devoted most of his adult life to fip, spent years studying what caused it, how it moved, and vaccines that didn't work. Now there was finally a cure that he could hold in his hands, but he wasn't allowed to use it. And on a very basic level, that just did not make sense to him.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

I honestly was naive and felt that, you know, once the veterinary organizations get involved, that cat breeders and cat organizations get involved, that they'll change their mind. Well, they did not change their mind.

[Alex Goldman]

We reached out to Gilead for their take on all of this, and they kind of gave us the runaround. They said that they're open to exploring a version for cats. They just haven't found the right partners. In October of 2020, the FDA gave full approval for the first ever treatment of COVID 19. And that treatment was GS5734, the Gilead antiviral now widely known as remdesivir. By the end of 2020, remdesivir had generated $2.8 billion in revenue and was estimated to cut Covid recovery time by nearly a third. But as for its cat saving cousin, GS441524, it seemed like the issue was dead in the water. There would be no FDA approval, and without that, it'd be as if the treatment didn't exist. So the expectation from the vet community was that until Gilead's patent ran out in 2029, cats were going to continue dying from this totally curable disease. But that's not how things turned out. As you already know from our listener Marlena, this life saving cat drug did end up finding its way into the world. In fact, while Dr. Peterson was busy campaigning for Gilead to reconsider their decision, GS had already hit the market. It just wasn't the market he was hoping for.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

Let's use the term unapproved market. I don't like to use black market because that's a nasty term. And I don't think what they did was nasty. I think what they did, they had to do because there was no alternative.

[Alex Goldman]

After the break, what you do when there's no alternative. This episode of Hyperfixed is brought to you by ExpressVPN. Every time you connect to an unencrypted network in cafes, hotels, airports, your online data isn't secure. Any hacker on the same network can gain access to and steal your personal data. Stuff like passwords, bank logins, and credit card details. Fortunately, ExpressVPN is super easy to use. You just fire up the app and click one button to get protected. It would take a hacker with a supercomputer over a billion years to get past ExpressVPN's encryption. And that's a lot of years that I think it's more years than people are alive. Also, using a VPN makes you feel like a hacker in a movie. You get to say stuff like, hold on a second, I'm just routing my data through France. That seems like it's worth it, right? And I actually do this. I route my traffic through other countries because certain platforms like Netflix have some shows and movies available in other countries that aren't available in the US ExpressVPN helps me get access to those. Secure your data online today by visiting expressvpn.com hyperfixed that's E X P R E S S vpn.com hyperfixed to find out how you can get up to four extra months free. Expressvpn.com hyperfixed this episode of Hyperfixed is brought to you by Hellofresh. It's summer which for my family is the season of going to the pool, coming back to like take a little time off, going back to the pool and then coming home for dinner. I come home tired and wanting to make an easy meal. And that's what HelloFresh is for. HelloFresh makes it easier to fit quick home cooked meals into your schedule every week by curating delicious recipes right to your door like Panko Crusted Chimichurri barramundi. Try saying that five times fast or sun dried tomato, grilled cheese, sanda as well as over 100 seasonal snacks, sides and treats. This summer, HelloFresh has made it even easier to enjoy delicious, healthy and homemade quality meals with their new ready made meals. These heat n go HelloFresh meals are chef crafted flavorful dishes ready in just 3 minutes. And even when I'm cooking it still only takes about 30 minutes to have a fresh home cooked meal on the table for my kids. And when we're done, maybe we'll go back to the place pool. Seriously, they're very demanding and they want to be at the pool. Except when we go to the beach. Make your summer enjoyable and delicious by signing up for [e-mail] hyperfixed10fm and get 10 free meals with a free item for life. That's hellofresh.com hyperfixed10FM for 10 free meals and a free item in every box. Hellofresh.com hyperfixed 10fm one box with an active subscription. Free meals are applied as a discount on the first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. When we started this episode, I told you that you were going to hear the story of how an illegal cat drug came to save the life of a one eyed kitten named Otto. But that story isn't linear. It starts in different places at different times. And while our last act told you the story of how the drug itself came to be and also of how it became illegal, the story of how that illegal drug came to be so widely available, and why Marlena's vet showed so much deference to the shadow operators that helped her obtain it. That story starts with a New York based cat lady named Robin Kintz.

[Robin Kintz]

I'm currently topped out at 8 and in the world of crazy cat people, that's actually not a lot as they will tell you. But I also have a husband who is allergic and asthmatic so we're holding steady at 8.

[Alex Goldman]

Robin is not a vet. Her background is mostly in marketing and graphic design and if you were to tell her 10 years ago that her life would come to be consumed by the distribution of illegal FIP treatments. She probably would have said, what's fip? But just like Marlena, Robin's story starts with a sick cat. Actually, she had two sick cats, Henry and Fiona, and she was desperate to help them. So in 2019, when her vet said that there were no treatments for this disease, Robin took to the Internet in search of a different answer.

[Robin Kintz]

I had gone online to look for information, answers, and found very little other than the fact that Dr. Niels Petersen had already discovered the antiviral that treats and cures FIP.

[Alex Goldman]

Again, this was 2019, during that weird limbo period between the time Dr. Peterson published that there was a treatment and when he found out that he wouldn't be allowed to use it for animals. But Robin didn't know any of that. All she knew was that there was a treatment and that her cats were going to die if they didn't get it soon. So she starts digging around online, and she finds her way into these FIP support groups on facebook, figuring, if anyone knows how to get this stuff, it's other cat owners who've experienced what she's experiencing. So she writes a little post explaining her situation and asking if anyone knows anything about these drugs. But none of them would speak about it. They were support groups, not pharmacies. Luckily, there were two women in the group who messaged her off to the side and said, hey, actually, we've been treating our cats, and we know where to get GS. You see, back when Dr. Peterson announced that he'd found a cure for FIP, he also shared the compound he used to create that cure and how to use it. Apparently, that's just what reputable researchers do. And when they do that, it's not uncommon for chemical companies in China to synthesize versions of those drugs that you can buy online.

[Dr. Niels Peterson]

And the companies in China will provide you these drugs for research purposes only. You can't use them to treat cats. But of course, you know people are going to use them.

[Alex Goldman]

The thing is, veterinarians can't touch these drugs. They can't even talk about them without risking the loss of their license. But again, Robin isn't a vet. So through encrypted messages and translation apps, Robin is introduced to one of the drug makers in China. She transfers the money, and they send her liquid vials of GS directly to her doorstep. And of the two cats she treated with the medication, one of them is still alive today.

[Robin Kintz]

Sadly, Henry did not survive. He was on treatment for a year and then succumbed but his sister Fiona is still with me and raising hell. She's been cured for six years.

[Alex Goldman]

And for a disease that used to be a death sentence, even this partial win felt like a total miracle. It didn't matter that this treatment came from a random lab in China, or that it was outrageously expensive, or that it might have totally backfired and killed her cats even faster. At a time when things seemed hopeless, this black market drug had given her cats a chance. And that was something she thought other cats deserved, too. But in this moment, there was just no infrastructure for getting it to them.

[Robin Kintz]

So I founded FIP Warriors Facebook group to fill that void.

[Alex Goldman]

Now, in the beginning, Robin told us that there was really nothing formal about this group. FIP warriors was basically just a handful of cat lovers who were helping each other figure out how to do this. And I don't just mean how to get the drugs. I mean, they were trying to figure out how to use them, too, because, remember, this disease had been incurable, and as far as the medical community was concerned, it still was. So the only concrete guidance they had were the research papers that Dr. Peterson had written about FIP. And while those were very good guides, most of the time, the FIP warriors were already encountering cases where the recommended 12 week protocol of GS just wasn't enough. So there was a lot of trial and error and a lot of fumbling around in the dark. The FIP warriors were really out over their skis on this one, but they were getting people this treatment, and cats were being cured. And very soon, word started to get around.

[Unnamed Cat Owner]

So in 2019 is when the cure became available. And because I ran a rescue when I lost kittens to fip, and I was really excited.

[Sari Safra Sukenik]

I had heard that there was a treatment available and that it was kind of like shady and black market, but I had no idea how to get it.

[Frances Frey]

I heard there was this online social media community that was building up around this, people treating their cats and getting this treatment from China.

[Alex Goldman]

At the time, there was really nothing quite like this group, and there was really nothing like this drug. So in circles where FIP is most prevalent, like cat rescues and breeding operations, word spread fast.

[Unnamed Cat Owner]

I jumped on it, and I immediately contacted everybody who was an admin in the FIP Warriors.

[Sari Safra Sukenik]

I was contacted within 24 hours by, like, two separate admins who offered to get the medication to me overnight.

[Frances Frey]

It was a miracle treatment. You went from these cats that were on death's doorstep, and a few days later, a week later, they're bouncing off the walls this was. I mean, this was a miracle.

[Alex Goldman]

But with all this new growth came all this new risk. Because it's one thing to get your own black market drugs from China, but getting black market drugs from China with the intent to distribute them potentially to thousands of people, people, that's called trafficking. And in the United States, that's illegal, even when the drugs are for a cat, even if you're trying to save their life. And there are no legal treatment options available. So the FIP warriors orchestrated their operation so that none of the actual transactions were ever happening in public spaces. So can you just explain really quickly the structure of FIP warriors? If I have a cat and my cat is diagnosed with FIP and I need to get the drug and I come to you, what happens? How does it work?

[Robin Kintz]

You answer a few questions to be admitted into the Facebook group, and then once you're admitted into the group, if you have a sick cat, you're encouraged to make a quick post on the page saying, I have a sick cat. Can someone please reach out to help me?

[Alex Goldman]

The thing you can't mention is drugs. You can't mention treatment in any way. Now, after you've written your post, you're contacted by a moderator who functions a bit like an intake coordinator, but also a bit like a pre screener.

[Robin Kintz]

What we'll do is ask a whole bunch of for intake information that will tell us a lot about your cat symptoms. We look at blood work, how much you've been able to get done through vet visits.

[Alex Goldman]

This confirms that your cat has FIP and not some other feline affliction. And I guess it also confirms that you're not a narcissist.

[Robin Kintz]

And based on your location, you will be assigned to a team, basically a care team, that will consist of several admins and a moderator and usually an admin in training.

[Alex Goldman]

From there, you'd be presented with supplier options, though those options were limited in the beginning. You'd place your order and the meds would be shipped to your home, sometimes in just 24 hours. And for the next three months, your treatment would be overseen by your administration.

[Robin Kintz]

The admins are the folks that basically connect to each person with a sick cat and advise and guide through the treatment process, which is 12 weeks, and then the observation period, which is another 12 weeks. And at that point, if the cat's doing well, it's considered cured.

[Alex Goldman]

With their new system in place, the group settled into what seemed like a pretty sustainable routine. But over the next year, they faced a series of challenges that would force them to confront the unavoidable risks of dealing with a black market drug. First, Covid hit and shut everything down. Then it started getting really hard to get the meds out of China. And then one of the brands that they were able to get suddenly went bad.

[Robin Kintz]

I believe what happened was the scientist who was in charge of making the product split off, and the remaining person thought that he could handle making the treatment. And it turned out that it was not effective and cats did die, and it was absolutely awful.

[Alex Goldman]

And of course, there was nothing anyone could really do about it because these black market drugs were being made by some random people on the other side of the planet. But every time the FIP warriors had a setback like this, they pivoted in some way that made things work better. After the bad batch incident, for example, one former moderator told us they realized they needed to diversify their list of manufacturers. And as luck would have it, a whole new crop of manufacturers had emerged to meet the needs of this new marketplace. So over the next couple years, Robin and the FIP warriors leadership team cultivated relationships with these new manufacturers. Robin told us that the group stuck to brands that had high quality products, which they verified through independent testing. She also said that they ran field trials and that they negotiated with the manufacturers in such a way that it brought down prices across the board. It was an insane amount of work from top to bottom. When we spoke to some of the admins who were there at the time, who also had full time jobs, by the way, they told us that their work with FIP warriors was constantly threatening to take over their lives.

[Unnamed Cat Owner]

I mean, you get cases at any time of the day. You'd get people who are in the ER at 1am and sometimes you stay up with them till 4 or 5. Because sometimes difference between, you know, 12 hours is the difference between life and death of these cats.

[Robin Kintz]

FIP is extremely fast moving in many cases, and time is of the essence in terms of getting started as quickly as possible.

[Sari Safra Sukenik]

I would try to, like, do it like in the bathroom on my lunch break, because if I knew their cat was going to die, then I just didn't want to think, oh, well, if I responded sooner, maybe this cat would still be alive.

[Alex Goldman]

It cost them relationships, it got them in trouble at work, and it became an obsession. But they did it because they felt like they had to.

[Sari Safra Sukenik]

Nobody wanted to do this. We didn't want to be in this place. We were helping these cats because no one else would. It was like basically a mission to save cats that couldn't be Saved previously. So it was something that we were kind of forced into and not something that anyone actually wanted to do.

[Alex Goldman]

It was a messy operation, but it was working. And as more and more pet owners were hearing about what they were up to, word started to make its way back to the veterinary community.

[Dr. Bruce Kornreich]

You know, you're always thinking, well, these are probably just scam places. They must be very illegitimate. So I was skeptical myself.

[Alex Goldman]

This is Dr. Bruce Kornreich. He's the director of the Cornell Feline Health Center. And he told us that when he first started hearing that people were treating their cats with black market drugs from China, he was very much like, but you have no idea what's actually in these drugs.

[Dr. Bruce Kornreich]

The thing that really changed me is I have a good friend who had a cat that had FIP, and she went through the full 84 days of injectable compound. Interestingly, in her case, I knew, for example, that she got a vial one time during the therapy, and she noticed some precipitate or something floating around in this clear liquid, and she was concerned, so she contacted the source. If it was illegitimate, they probably would never have gotten back to her. They spoke to her for 45 minutes on the phone on a Saturday, and ultimately sent her new compound. So. And this cat that would have almost certainly passed away survived. And this was three years ago, and the cat is doing well. So this, to me, was like, whoa.

[Alex Goldman]

But realizing how well this black market treatment was working and how responsive the administrators were and how many positive outcomes it was creating, that actually put the veterinary community in a tricky situation, because.

[Dr. Bruce Kornreich]

Veterinarians, we take an oath to alleviate animal suffering. So on the one hand, if a veterinarian had an owner come in and say, my cat is dying of fip, can you help me? That oaf is sort of like, I have to help them.

[Alex Goldman]

On the other hand, if they help the owner obtain or administer black market drugs, they could lose their license.

[Dr. Bruce Kornreich]

So basically, what started to happen is they would let people know that this was available, but they couldn't really, you know, help with the administration of the drug.

[Alex Goldman]

And once the vets started recommending the drug, the group just exploded. Robyn told us that she has files full of paperwork where you can see in writing that veterinarians are referring their patients to FIP warriors for treatment details. And again, that doesn't just mean details on how to get the treatment. It's the whole treatment package, from prescribing to dosing to blood work, all the way through the observation period. So when Marlena asked us why her IRL vet had shown so much deference to this rando chat bubble. The answer is essentially that by serving a need that licensed veterinarians were prohibited from serving, these unlicensed medical vigilantes became the de facto experts in the treatment of this disease. As for the impact that had on the size of the group and their caseload, again, the FIP warriors just scaled up. They brought on more mods, more admins, and these new helpers were trained in the style that they themselves had been trained in. And, yeah, it was grueling, and sometimes it was heartbreaking. But if you log on to FIP warriors today and send up a signal saying, your cat needs help, there's a good chance that someone in their network of nearly 90,000 members will be able to spot you until you can order treatment of your own.

[Robin Kintz]

Through the help of many amazing volunteers, we've gotten to the point where we are now, where we have the process in place for intake and assigning to teams and finding emergency meds. We have 50 different state chats specifically for that purpose. But, yeah, it's been a process.

[Alex Goldman]

I just want to pause and reflect for a minute on the scale and coordination of this operation. Like in the middle of a global pandemic where supply chains were breaking down left and right, Robin and the FIP warriors were able to maintain an international supply chain built from the ground up. Without medical backgrounds and often without any formal administration training. They figured out treatment plans. They learned how to analyze blood work. They showed that there's a huge marketplace for these drugs, and they built the infrastructure to make it work. And since this group was first created in 2019, they estimate that their work has saved the lives of some 250,000 cats. But it turns out that Marlena's cat Otto, wasn't one of them. While Otto did benefit from this network of helpers and the marketplace they created, by the time Otto got sick, Robin told us that, for the most part, FIP warriors had officially stopped distributing medication. And there's a very specific reason why that happened. In 2022, a big public scandal would put the group under a microscope. It would make headlines and even involve federal law enforcement. And in the fallout of that episode, the group would end up tearing itself in half. But as we talked to more of the warriors about what happened, we realized that even at the pinnacle of the group's success, the cracks had already begun to form. They just didn't know it yet. The multi million dollar scheme defrauded cat.

[Marlena]

Owners nationwide over the course of several.

[Unnamed Cat Owner]

Years and it was like a wake up call that we should never have been doing this in the first place. You know what I mean?

[Frances Frey]

We tried within the group to sort of say like, hey, this is not what we're here for.

[Alex Goldman]

Were you aware of any of that happening? And do you think there are other people who are taking advantage of the group in that way?

[Robin Kintz]

There are inherent risks that people have taken in order to make this group function, in order to save cats, despite the risks. So to the people that are worried about commissions and being ripped off, I say look elsewhere for something to complain about. Is your cat alive?

[Alex Goldman]

All this on the Next episode of Hyperfix. This episode of Hyperfix was hosted by me, Alex Goldman, but the episode was produced and edited by Emma Cortland, Amor Yates and Serious Offer Sukanek and they are the MVPs on this one. I just showed up and talked into a microphone. They did so much hard work. I am so impressed with them. I am so lucky to work with them. I just need the rest of the world to know the music is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder and me. The show is engineered by Tony Williams, Fact checking by Naomi Barr, Legal review by Matthew Hallgren. Special thanks this week to Sarah Ellis for the COVID art and to my pal Bea for some extra research. You can get bonus episodes. Join our discord and much [e-mail] join next week's bonus episode is going to be an extended interview from one of the many conversations we had for this story. Again, that's hyperfixpod.com join to become a premium member and get all kinds of bonus stuff. Hyperfixed is a proud member of Radiotopia from prx, a network of independent creator owned listener supported podcasts. Discover Audio with a vision at Radiotopia fm. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you in a couple weeks for the Cat Drug Black Market Part 2. Radiotopia.

[Robin Kintz]

From PRX.