Scope narrowed, large platforms exited, and pricing moved — but patient-specific compounding continues.
FDA declared the tirzepatide shortage resolved in December 2024. A year on, the practical effects are visible: the lawful scope of compounding narrowed, several large platforms left the compounded market, and pricing across the remaining programmes has moved repeatedly.
What did not happen is the disappearance predicted at the time. Compounding for an identified patient with a valid prescription operates under a statutory pathway that shortage status does not create or remove; shortage status affected what could be done at scale.
For patients the change is in who is selling rather than whether. The market has consolidated toward smaller operators, which raises the importance of verifying the pharmacy behind a programme.
Supply reliability is worth asking about explicitly. Programmes that came through the transition without interrupting patients are the ones worth paying a small premium for, and that history is not visible on a pricing page.
Sources
- FDA drug shortage database and compounding communications — source
Dated 2026-01-15. If this item is out of date or wrong, tell us through contact and the change is logged in corrections.
Primary sources
Clinical, dosing and regulatory statements on this page rest on the documents below. Links go to the publisher, not to a summary of it. Prices are not sourced here — they carry a verification date instead, and the reason is set out in the source ledger.
- ZEPBOUND (tirzepatide) full prescribing information — DailyMed, US National Library of Medicine. Dose ladder, contraindications, warnings, storage.
- FDA’s concerns with unapproved GLP-1 drugs used for weight loss — US Food and Drug Administration. Compounded GLP-1 risks, API import alert, cold-chain complaints.
- FD&C Act provisions that apply to human drug compounding — US Food and Drug Administration. Why a compounded preparation is lawful without being FDA-approved.
- Tirzepatide once weekly for the treatment of obesity (SURMOUNT-1) — N Engl J Med 2022;387:205-216. Registration NCT04184622. The weight-reduction and adverse-event figures used across this site.
- The full source ledger — every primary source, what it supports, the date we read it, and the claims we deliberately do not source.