Which medicine is this?

Same ingredient, different uses

Food and Drug Administration is written as FDA for short; the agency reviews medicines in the U.S.

As of September 26, 2026, semaglutide (Wegovy) injection has an FDA-approved use for weight management with changes to food and activity.

At the September 26, 2026 check, semaglutide (Ozempic) injection was approved for uses in adults with type 2 diabetes, but not for weight loss.

Prescribers can use an approved drug beyond the uses on its FDA label; this is off-label prescribing, as of September 26, 2026.

Ask what condition is being treated and why that product fits the plan.

What made to order means

Compounding means a pharmacist or doctor prepares medicine for a patient’s particular needs in place of a ready-made drug product.

At the September 26, 2026 check, compounded preparations lacked FDA approval and FDA review of safety, quality, or effect before being marketed.

According to FDA’s position checked September 26, 2026, compounding may meet a medical need that approved drugs do not fill.

There was no FDA-approved generic semaglutide that could be marketed in the United States at the September 26, 2026 check.

Generic means an approved copy of a branded drug. Ask for an explanation if that word is used for a compounded product.

The shortage explanation needs a date

The September 26, 2026 check found no semaglutide injections on FDA’s national shortage list.

FDA’s deadline for shortage-related copies by state-licensed pharmacies and doctors was April 22, 2025.

Registered compounding facilities had a May 22, 2025 deadline, as recorded September 26, 2026.

These facilities are businesses that prepare medicines in batches, commonly supplying clinics and hospitals.

Federal rules checked September 26, 2026 restrict making copies of available approved medicines through compounding on a regular basis or at large scale.

Under those rules, the prescriber must judge that altering the medicine makes a meaningful difference to that named patient’s care.

A cheaper price alone is not enough to meet that rule.

Ask what is different from the ready-made medicine, why that matters for your health, and where the reason is recorded. A shortage claim from the past does not answer those questions about an offer today.