Pharmacy-made needs its own explanation.

Compounding means preparing medicine for a patient. A pharmacist or doctor makes it, rather than using a finished product from a drug maker.

Compounded medicines lacked FDA approval as of September 26, 2026.

The FDA, the U.S. drug regulator, does not check these products for quality, benefit or safety before they are marketed.

The agency says a medicine made by compounding can fill a gap in care when approved products cannot meet the medical need.

The FDA declared the national semaglutide injection shortage resolved on February 21, 2025.

The FDA’s national shortage list had no entry for semaglutide injections on September 26, 2026.

A pharmacy’s empty shelf does not mean the medicine has a national shortage listing.

Rules checked September 26, 2026 restrict ordinary pharmacies from regularly making copies of available approved medicines.

An exception can apply when the medicine is changed for a named patient and the prescriber decides that change matters for that patient’s care.

FDA’s example is a patient with a dye allergy who needs that dye left out of their medicine.

Ask what would change in the medicine for you, and why that change matters.

Being cheaper alone is not enough to meet this rule. It is a rule about changing the medicine, not a medical test you take.

A generic has approval as a copy of a medicine sold under a brand name.

There was no generic semaglutide with FDA approval that could be marketed in the U.S. on September 26, 2026.

FDA guidance checked that day calls descriptions of compounded medicine as generic or equivalent to an approved drug misleading.

Adding a vitamin does not by itself remove the copy restriction, under FDA policy checked September 26, 2026.

Ask for the product’s exact name and the pharmacy that prepared it. Keep the medical reason separate from the price.