What is a reason to pause?

What if there is no prescription?

As of September 2026, a valid prescription must come before a prescription medicine is dispensed under federal law.

An offer to skip that step is a warning sign in guidance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

What if a made-to-order product is called approved?

As of September 2026, a compounded drug, meaning one made to order, is not FDA-approved.

FDA identifies claims that it is approved or the same as an approved product as misleading.

Registration of the business does not turn its medicine into an approved product.

Does adding a vitamin change the rules?

Federal rules, as of September 2026, restrict pharmacies from routinely copying medicines that are already available in approved form.

FDA says adding a vitamin to the same medicine, with a similar amount of medicine in it, may still count as a copy.

That means the limits on making copies still apply.

An exception can apply when the person writing your prescription decides a change makes an important medical difference for you.

They must write down the change and why that difference matters for you.

Adding a vitamin alone does not establish that exception.

A medicine on FDA’s national shortage list can have different rules for making copies.

Neither semaglutide nor tirzepatide appears on FDA’s national shortage list as of September 2026.

So the national-shortage allowance for making copies does not apply to these medicines.

A local pharmacy’s lack of stock is a different issue from that national shortage status.

What if the product says research use?

FDA warns, as of September 2026, that weight-drug products sold to people with research labels have unknown quality and could cause harm.

Leave products labelled “for research” out of your search for treatment.

FDA advises getting a doctor’s prescription and using a pharmacy licensed by your state.

What if help disappears after payment?

FDA’s telehealth warning signs include having no licensed doctor available for questions once medicine has arrived.

It also warns about damaged packaging, missing instructions and pharmacy names that may be false.

What if the instructions are confusing?

FDA has received reports of errors with compounded injectable semaglutide that may be linked to harm, including hospital care.

Ask the person who wrote your prescription or the pharmacist to explain the instructions before acting on them.

For severe signs of an allergic reaction such as trouble breathing or face swelling, MedlinePlus directs readers to the nearest emergency room.