A care guide in plain words
What does that claim really prove?
Read the full claim about approval or registration. Ask what exactly was checked: the medicine, the business, or something else.
Listed does not mean approved
Registration is not product approval
As of September 26, 2026, a drug-making business can register with the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. Registering does not mean its medicines are approved or that it has permission to sell them.
A business registration lists the business. It does not show that the FDA has reviewed a finished medicine.
National Drug Code is shortened to NDC. It is a number in FDA's product list. Having that number does not mean a medicine is approved, as checked September 26, 2026.
Compounding claims beside the research
Ask about the medicine being offered
A compounded medicine is prepared to order; FDA has not approved it, as of September 26, 2026.
An approved medicine that copies a brand-name medicine is called a generic. In the September 26, 2026 record, FDA says it is false or misleading to call a made-to-order medicine a generic. The warning also covers claims that it has been proven to match the result of an approved medicine. This warning does not tell us whether a particular made-to-order medicine was studied or what a study found.
Ask which finished product was studied. Then ask whether that is the product being offered to you.
Still relying on a shortage?
Check an old shortage explanation
The September 26, 2026 check found neither semaglutide injections nor tirzepatide on FDA's national drug-shortage list.
One pharmacy being out of stock is not the same as a medicine appearing on the national shortage list.
Federal law restricts copying approved medicines available ready-made, as of September 26, 2026. One exception is a change made for a named patient. The clinician prescribing it must judge that, for that patient, the change makes a significant difference. A price reduction does not qualify as that difference.
Illinois's September 28, 2026 rule adds two requirements for a pharmacy making a copy of a ready-made medicine. The ready-made medicine must be unavailable through normal supply channels in time to meet the patient's needs. The clinician prescribing it must also have asked the pharmacy to make it. The federal limits still apply.
Ask the pharmacy whether it can obtain the ready-made medicine through its usual suppliers in time for your needs. One pharmacy being out of stock does not answer all the questions above. Ask which current rules allow the medicine to be made for you. An old headline about a shortage does not explain which rules apply today.