Identify the medicine and how you take it
Semaglutide is in Ozempic and Wegovy; tirzepatide is in Mounjaro and Zepbound. These drug products are approved for specific uses.
Ask for the drug ingredient's name alongside any brand name. Ask whether the proposed product is a shot or a tablet.
A generic medicine is an approved alternative to the brand-name drug. In the US, semaglutide and tirzepatide had no generic versions that could be sold as of September 2026.
Ask why a compounded version is being proposed
Compounded means prepared to order.
The national shortages ended. Nevada's pharmacy board then told pharmacies to end making their own versions of these injections under the shortage rules.
Federal law limits how often an ordinary pharmacy can make medicine that is essentially a copy of a drug already sold by a manufacturer.
An exception can apply when the person writing your prescription decides that a change in the medicine makes an important medical difference for you. That decision must be for you specifically.
For example, a dye allergy may mean a patient needs that dye left out of a medicine. Another patient might be unable to swallow a tablet.
Adding a vitamin can still leave an injection classed as a copy under FDA's rules for making versions of existing medicines.
Ask which change you need and why it matters for your health, then ask what rule permits the pharmacy to prepare it. Ask the prescriber to put that reason in your record.
A lower price alone is not the medical difference needed for this exception.
Research labels do not provide another care route
Retatrutide and cagrilintide are drug ingredient names. FDA says federal law bars using either ingredient to make medicine to order.
Neither ingredient is part of an FDA-approved drug, and FDA has not found either safe and effective for a medical condition.
If a weight-care offer uses either name, ask the person treating you about an approved option for your health problem.
Ask for the full ingredient name even if the offer uses a nickname.