Check the medicine
When a pharmacy makes the medicine
A personal medical need is different from a cheaper-looking copy.
Compounding rules as of September 26, 2026.
What compounded means
Making or mixing medicine for an order is the process called compounding. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) says compounding can serve a need for medicine when no approved product meets that need.
A compounded medicine itself is not FDA-approved. Before sale, the agency does not review the product’s quality, safety, or how well it works.
A larger business that makes medicine to order may be registered with FDA. Being on that government list does not mean its medicines are FDA-approved.
Why the reason matters
The health professional placing the medicine order is your prescriber. Federal law limits pharmacies making copies of available medicines again and again or in unusually large amounts. The prescriber can judge that changing the medicine makes a medically important difference for a named patient.
Lower cost cannot count as a medically important difference for that patient. Ask what medical need explains the proposed change.
FDA says adding a vitamin can still count as making a copy of semaglutide. This applies when the medicine is given the same way and its strength is the same or similar. Strength describes how much medicine a product contains. The prescriber must decide why the change matters medically for that patient and record that important difference.
A past shortage is not an open door
The FDA shortage list records national supply problems. The rules for making copies can change when a medicine is on that list. A local pharmacy running out does not mean the medicine is on the national list.
The FDA shortage list contained neither semaglutide injections nor tirzepatide on September 26, 2026. The earlier deadlines for making copies because of those shortages had passed.
Ask the prescriber which legal rules allow the pharmacy to make this medicine for you. Ask what medical need supports that choice. The answer depends on the exact medicine and your health.
Check the pharmacy nextSource notes for this page
These limits on copies do not ban every medicine made to order. The pharmacy still has to meet the legal rules for making the exact medicine being offered.