On the Ohio side
What changes when a medicine is compounded?
Compounding means making or mixing medicine to meet a person’s need. Ask why a medicine made this way is needed for you.
Making medicine to meet a need
A compounder prepares a medicine by mixing or making it, rather than supplying a drug maker’s finished product. An approved product may not meet a patient’s need, such as when a patient cannot swallow a tablet or is allergic to a dye.
Ask what change is proposed and why. Ask how the clinician reached that decision. A useful explanation connects the preparation to your medical need.
Different kinds of preparation have different rules
A prescription naming the patient
The Food and Drug Administration goes by the initials FDA.
As of September 2026, a regular pharmacy generally prepares compounded medicine against a valid prescription that names the patient. It must also meet the compounding rules, including the limits on copies explained below. A prescription with your name on it is not the whole check. Ask why this medicine can be made for you under those rules.
Batches for clinics and hospitals
An outsourcing facility registers with the FDA as a business making sterile medicine in batches, often to supply clinics and hospitals. It may make those batches without a prescription naming each patient.
Sterile means free of living germs. The compounded medicine has no FDA approval, whichever kind of business makes it, as of September 2026.
Copies and shortages
A cheaper copy still needs a medical reason
As of September 2026, regular pharmacies face limits on routinely making copies of commercially available medicines. The person prescribing your medicine must decide that a change makes an important difference for your medical needs. Such a change can qualify for an exception to the copy rule.
That exception cannot rest on price savings alone. Ask what change you need, such as a different form or removal of a dye, and why it matters for you.
Ohio’s pharmacy board says pharmacies and larger compounding businesses can no longer make copies of semaglutide or tirzepatide just because of a national shortage, as of September 2026. For an Ohio exception based on your medical need, the person prescribing must write down the needed change and why it makes an important difference for you. Ask for that explanation before agreeing to a compounded version.
Local stock is not a national shortage
The national list
As of September 2026, semaglutide injection and tirzepatide are not on the FDA shortage list.
A local pharmacy shelf
An empty shelf at a local pharmacy does not establish that the medicine appears on the national shortage list.