Understand care
What “compounded” does and does not tell you
Compounded means prepared to order. It does not settle the questions about approval, ingredients or why this option is being offered.
It can meet a patient need
Compounding can help with needs that approved medicine cannot meet, for example when a patient has a dye allergy.
As of September 26, 2026, the made-to-order medicine has no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
Registration, copying and shortage limits
A facility registered with the FDA has no approval of its business or its medicines merely through registration, as of September 26, 2026.
Copying an available drug is restricted
Federal limits apply to pharmacies regularly making copies of commercially available medicines, or doing so on a large scale, as of September 26, 2026.
The copy rule has an exception if the person prescribing decides a change to the medicine meets a patient’s health need that the ready-made product cannot.
This exception cannot rest solely on a cheaper price.
For example, a patient might need a version without a dye they are allergic to.
An old shortage is not a current permission
The particular semaglutide or tirzepatide product determines its use: managing weight or treating type 2 diabetes.
The FDA’s September 26, 2026 records show no national shortage for either semaglutide injection or tirzepatide.
Ask why the pharmacy may make the version being offered to you.
Some ingredients have a direct federal limit
Compounding cannot include retatrutide or cagrilintide under federal law, a prohibition the FDA reports as of September 26, 2026.