First ask what is being made
Compounding prepares medicine for an individual order instead of using a finished brand product.
The FDA, the US medicine regulator, says compounding can meet needs an approved product cannot.
Compounded medicines had no approval on September 26, 2026: before patients receive them, their quality, safety and benefit have not been reviewed by the FDA.
A lower price does not settle whether the product fits your care or the rules.
A past shortage is not a reason to copy now
On September 26, 2026, semaglutide injections were absent from the FDA's national shortage list.
During the national shortage, pharmacies could make copies that the usual rules would limit. That permission, and the extra time given when the shortage ended, have both ended.
For ordinary compounding pharmacies, federal law limits regular copying of an available medicine.
For an individual patient, the prescriber must explain how a change to the medicine would meet that person's needs in a way the ready-made product does not. A lower price alone is not enough.
For its compounding example, the FDA describes a patient who is allergic to a dye in the ready-made medicine.
That is a need to discuss, not proof that a particular semaglutide offer meets the rules.
Ask which of your needs the approved medicine leaves unmet, and how that difference is recorded by the prescriber.
Pause at these claims
The FDA identified the following descriptions of compounded medicines as false or misleading on September 26, 2026:
- Calling the compounded product approved by the FDA.
- Calling it a generic version of an approved brand.
- Saying it has been proven to give the same results as the approved product.
Ask for the ingredient's exact name. Semaglutide sodium and semaglutide acetate are different chemical versions known as salt forms.
The FDA said on September 26, 2026, that these active ingredients differ from semaglutide and that it knew of no lawful grounds to use them in compounding.
A closer look at the source
Adding a vitamin leaves the copying rules to check
As checked September 26, 2026, the FDA says adding vitamin B12 is not enough by itself to allow regular copying of semaglutide.
B12 is a vitamin. The prescriber still has to document a change that matters for that patient's medical needs.
Ask for the reason it fits your own medical needs, the pharmacy name and the written product details.
Information as of September 26, 2026.