FDA supply and compounding update
The shortage route has changed
The FDA’s national shortage list did not include semaglutide or tirzepatide injections when checked September 26, 2026.
An empty shelf at a local pharmacy does not put the medicine on the national shortage list.
The shortage list is the FDA’s record of national supply problems.
Read the FDA’s supply updateCan a pharmacy still make a custom version?
Under federal law checked September 26, 2026, pharmacists and doctors face limits on regularly making copies of available medicines.
A prescriber is the health professional who orders medicine.
The exception is for a change to the medicine itself, to meet a health need of one named patient.
The prescriber must judge that the change makes a medically important difference for that individual patient.
Price alone cannot qualify the medicine for this exception.
For example, someone allergic to a dye may need a medicine prepared without that dye.
- Which part of my medicine will change, and what is the health reason for that change?
- What difference has the prescriber documented for me?
- What rule applies to the facility preparing it?
Washington Pharmacy Commission statement
Ask which ingredient is being used
Semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) is the medicine named in this state statement.
In its statement checked September 30, 2026, Washington’s Pharmacy Commission says semaglutide sodium and semaglutide acetate are salt forms that cannot be used for compounding.
A salt form is a different chemical version of the ingredient.
The statement says the semaglutide ingredient must be suitable for making medicines, rather than sold only for research.
It must come with a certificate of analysis: paperwork showing test results for that ingredient.
Ask the pharmacy to explain that paperwork and name the ingredient it used.
The commission is explaining how it applies existing federal rules.
This is a statement from the pharmacy board, rather than a new law passed by the state.
Read the Washington ingredient statement