Make the checks · the product
Check the exact drug behind the broad label
Copy the ingredient and product names. Write down whether it is a tablet, an injection, or another kind of medicine. Ask whether that exact product is approved or made to order.
Approval is about a product and its use
The US drug regulator is called the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA for short.
A particular product and a specified use are what the agency reviews when granting FDA approval, as of September 2026.
Ask which use the proposed product is approved for. Ask why it is being suggested for the problem you brought to the visit.
Made to order is not an approved generic
Generic means an approved version of a brand-name drug.
Preparing medicine around an individual patient's needs is called compounding.
Presenting a compounded product as an approved drug's generic is misleading in the FDA guidance checked during September 2026.
As of September 2026, no approved generic of semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) can be marketed in the US.
The same September 2026 finding applies to tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound).
A drug number does not prove approval
The number identifying a product on a drug list is its National Drug Code, abbreviated NDC.
Neither that list entry nor the NDC number establishes FDA approval for a product, the agency says as of September 2026.
Ask for the approval record itself if a code is being used to answer your question.
Some familiar names have no approved US product
Neither BPC-157 nor ipamorelin has an approved US product in FDA records, as of September 2026.
The absence of approval leaves a separate question: whether making either ingredient to order is lawful.
Ask the prescriber which rule permits making the exact ingredient to order. A search for an approved product cannot answer that separate question.
Retatrutide has a separate, clear limit: federal law prohibits its use for compounding, the FDA states as of September 2026.
A shortage claim needs the national record
The FDA's national drug shortage list has neither semaglutide injections nor tirzepatide injections on it, as of September 2026.
A nearby pharmacy running out of stock does not amount to a national FDA shortage listing.
Ask the prescriber to explain the basis for any compounded version being offered. A claim about short supply needs more than an old headline.
Ask why a made-to-order version is needed
As of September 2026, federal law limits routine compounding of drugs that closely copy products already available.
A prescriber can decide that a change to the medicine makes enough difference to one named patient's medical needs to fall outside that copy rule.
As of September 2026, a change for one patient does not excuse the other federal compounding rules. For example, an ordinary pharmacy still needs a valid prescription for a named patient.
Simply charging less fails that test of an individual patient's medical needs, as of September 2026.
Ask the prescriber: What will you change in the medicine, and what medical difference would that make for me? Can I see your reason in writing? Then ask which pharmacy would make it and how it meets the remaining rules.
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