Compounded semaglutide cost as little as $199 a month in 2024, according to one large telehealth company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In early 2025, the same company said its injectable plans started at $165 a month. Those were reported prices, tied to subscriptions, not pharmacy prices we could check.
For comparison, Wegovy's list price is $1,349.02 a package today, per NovoCare's list-price page (checked 10/18/2026). Until 11/17/2025, Novo Nordisk's own cash price for the Wegovy pen was $499 a month.
The legal basis for mass compounding was a drug shortage. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared the semaglutide shortage over on 02/21/2025, and the grace periods for compounders ended that spring. Since then, FDA has moved to tighten the rules further.
How much did compounded semaglutide cost on telehealth plans?
Telehealth companies set their own prices, and most don't publish them in a form we can date and verify. So we used a source that is dated and on the public record: one large telehealth company's own SEC filings.
The company's Q2 2024 shareholder letter put a number on it. Compounded GLP-1s, it said, were accessible for as low as $199 per month with an annual subscription
. GLP-1 is the drug class that includes semaglutide.
Its Q4 2024 letter, filed 02/24/2025, said it had cut injectable-based treatment plans to as low as $165 per month
. That letter doesn't name the drug. The company's annual report for 2024 says its injectable offering included compounded semaglutide.
Read those numbers with care. "As low as" means the cheapest plan, and the $199 price required a year-long subscription. They come from one company, and we're not recommending it or any seller.
Why was compounded semaglutide allowed in the first place?
Because semaglutide was on FDA's drug shortage list. Federal law generally bars compounders from making copies of approved drugs that are commercially available. A shortage relaxes that.
FDA explains the rules on its compounding policy page (content current as of 04/01/2026). There are two kinds of compounders:
- 503A pharmacies are state-licensed pharmacies and physicians that compound for individual patients' prescriptions.
- 503B outsourcing facilities are compounding facilities registered with FDA.
When a drug leaves the shortage list, both lose the room to copy it. FDA gave them time to wind down.
What changed when the semaglutide shortage ended?
The grace periods ran out, one after the other. Here's the timeline, from FDA's own updates and the Federal Register:
- 02/21/2025: FDA determined that the shortage of semaglutide injection products was resolved.
- 04/22/2025: The planned end of FDA's enforcement grace period for 503A compounders. A court denied a request to block FDA's decision on 04/24/2025, and FDA said on 04/28/2025 that the 503A period had ended.
- 05/22/2025: The end of the grace period for 503B outsourcing facilities.
- 02/06/2026: FDA announced it intends to restrict GLP-1 active ingredients meant for non-FDA-approved compounded drugs that are being mass-marketed.
- 04/01/2026: FDA reminded compounders that semaglutide and tirzepatide
do not currently appear on the 503B bulks list or on FDA's drug shortage list
.
- 05/01/2026: FDA proposed not to add semaglutide, tirzepatide or liraglutide to the list of ingredients outsourcing facilities may use. It extended the comment period to 07/30/2026.
As of 10/18/2026, we found no final decision on that proposal in the Federal Register.
Tirzepatide, the drug in Zepbound and Mounjaro, went through the same steps earlier. FDA first called its shortage resolved on 10/02/2024 and confirmed that on 12/19/2024. Its grace periods ended in March 2025.
Can pharmacies still compound semaglutide?
In narrow cases. FDA's policy page says a 503A pharmacy can't regularly compound what are essentially copies of an approved drug. FDA says it considers a product essentially a copy if it has the same active ingredient as the approved drug in the same, similar or an easily substitutable strength, and the approved drug can be given the same way.
There's an exception when a prescriber documents that a change makes a significant difference for a specific patient. FDA also says it doesn't intend to act when a pharmacy fills four or fewer prescriptions of such a product in a calendar month.
For 503B outsourcing facilities, FDA says they generally need the ingredient on its bulks list or the drug on the shortage list. Semaglutide is on neither (checked 10/18/2026).
We're describing the rules, not giving legal advice. Whether a given product is lawful depends on facts we can't see.
What has FDA said about how compounded GLP-1s are sold?
Its 02/06/2026 statement set out what companies can't claim in their marketing. According to FDA, they can't say compounded products are generic versions
of FDA-approved drugs or the same as drugs approved by FDA
.
They also can't say compounded drugs use the same active ingredient as the FDA-approved drugs
, or that they are clinically proven. FDA said that breaking these rules may lead to legal action, including seizure and injunction.
FDA's page on unapproved GLP-1 drugs (content current as of 10/01/2026) adds a basic point. It says compounded drugs are not FDA approved
, and the agency doesn't review them for safety, effectiveness or quality before they're sold.
The same page says FDA has received reports of adverse events, some needing a hospital stay, that may be linked to dosing errors. We don't publish dosing information for compounded products.
What does FDA-approved semaglutide cost now?
Far less than it did when compounding took off. Novo Nordisk now sells Wegovy directly to cash buyers (checked 10/18/2026):
The Wegovy pen's cash price fell from $499 to $349 on 11/17/2025. Novo's release that day said the offers aimed to help people afford treatment and eliminate the lure of risky, potentially unsafe, compounded "semaglutide" knockoffs
. That's the maker's view, and the maker has a stake in it.
So the gap has narrowed. The lowest compounded plan price we found reported for 2024 was $199 a month. Today, a new patient's first two fills of the Wegovy pen cost the same $199 through Novo.
For the full brand price breakdowns, see Wegovy price without insurance and Ozempic cost without insurance. For the tirzepatide side, see Zepbound price without insurance.
What does compounded semaglutide cost today?
We couldn't confirm a current price from a primary source. The telehealth pricing pages we tried blocked our automated check or showed prices only after sign-up. We don't use prices from forums, resellers or coupon sites.
If you're quoted a compounded price, ask what it includes, how long you're committed, and which pharmacy makes the product. Then compare it with the brand prices above.
How we checked
We read FDA's pages, the Federal Register and the companies' SEC filings on 10/18/2026, and each table lists its sources with that date. Compounded prices are labeled "reported" because they come from a company's own statements, not a price we could check at a pharmacy. When anything changes, we date the correction here and log it in the price change log.
