First check: what made to order means

What does compounded mean?

In compounding, a doctor or pharmacist makes the medicine instead of supplying one already finished by a drug company.

This can address a need left unmet by an approved product, such as avoiding a dye that causes an allergy.

Has the finished medicine been reviewed?

Compounded products were without FDA approval on September 26, 2026.

The FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, does not review their safety, quality or benefit before they reach patients.

That difference applies even when the pharmacy is well run.

Why make a version of a ready-made medicine?

As of September 26, 2026, rules limited how often pharmacies and doctors could make copies of ready-made medicines already available. Here, a copy is a medicine very similar to the ready-made product.

The person writing the prescription may decide that a change to the medicine makes an important difference for one particular patient.

For example, a medicine can be made without a dye when the patient is allergic to that dye.

When the person writing the prescription decides the change makes that important difference, the changed medicine does not count as a copy under this rule.

A price reduction by itself does not qualify as that important difference.

Ask which ingredient or other detail would change, and why that matters for you. Ask how the other rules for making the medicine are met, too.

What changed when supplies improved?

The FDA keeps a national list of medicines in short supply. Being on that list allowed copies to be made under shortage rules.

The FDA’s shortage list no longer included injections of semaglutide or tirzepatide on September 26, 2026.

Without that listing, pharmacies could no longer rely on a national shortage to make copies.

A local pharmacy running out does not create a national FDA shortage.

Ask the pharmacy to name the rule that permits it to prepare the offered medicine.