Get the exact medicine name
Read past the treatment heading to the medicine itself. Get its full name, with the form written beside it: injection or tablet.
Semaglutide is the ingredient; Wegovy and Ozempic are brands
The medicine ingredient is called semaglutide; Ozempic and Wegovy are brand names for products that contain it.
Hormones carry messages inside the body. Your gut releases a hormone named GLP-1 after food, helping signal fullness and manage blood sugar.
Semaglutide is a man-made, altered copy of that hormone. The medicine itself was made differently; it does not change the hormone already in your body.
The Wegovy label on appetite and blood sugar
A peptide links a few of the same small parts that proteins are built from. The name describes chemistry and does not tell you a product’s approval status.
Compare what the names actually tell you
| Name on an offer | What that name can tell you |
|---|---|
| Wegovy | The US record dated 26 September 2026 lists Wegovy injection for weight management in adults. That covers obesity, or excess weight alongside a related health problem. It also covers teenagers aged 12 or older who have obesity. |
| Ozempic | It lists Ozempic injection for adults who have type 2 diabetes, to help manage their blood sugar. If these adults also have heart disease, the label includes reducing their chance of stroke or heart attack. For adults who also have long-term kidney disease, its approved uses include slowing that disease and reducing the risk of death from heart disease. Its label does not include a weight-loss approval. |
| Compounded semaglutide | For semaglutide, compounding means making or mixing the medicine as a pharmacist or doctor, instead of supplying the manufacturer’s finished drug. |
Ozempic’s label and named uses
Approval is about a specific product and use
FDA is short for Food and Drug Administration. Its medicine reviews concern a specific product and the uses named for it.
Approval leaves room for results to vary from person to person.
FDA’s position recorded on 26 September 2026 is that compounded medicines lack FDA approval.
Before a compounded medicine reaches patients, its quality, benefit and safety have not been verified by the agency.
FDA’s explanation of pharmacy-made medicine
A lower price does not settle the copy question
For semaglutide injections, FDA declared the national shortage resolved on 21 February 2025; that status remained in the record checked on 26 September 2026.
The pharmacy rule recorded that September generally bars regularly making a near-copy of a medicine already on sale.
One exception allows a change made for a named patient, when that person’s prescriber finds a meaningful difference.
A price saving by itself cannot justify that exception.
The US record on 26 September 2026 had no generic semaglutide—an approved copy of a brand medicine—that could be sold.
FDA’s dated updates on semaglutide copies
For a compounded offer, ask the prescriber to write down exactly how the medicine differs and what need of yours the change addresses. Also ask who makes it and why making it is allowed.