Start with the exact product
Get the medicine’s exact name and find out its form: a shot, a pill, or something else. Is it an approved ready-made medicine or one made to order?
Medicine reviews in the US are the work of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) had FDA-approved products in the US at the September 2026 check.
Ask which use the particular product is approved for.
Ask it plainly
Is this an approved ready-made medicine or one made to order?
Do not let a code stand in for approval
In September 2026, FDA said a National Drug Code, or NDC, did not establish that it had approved a product.
An NDC is a product-identifying number in a government directory. Ask for the product’s actual approval record rather than relying on the code.
Keep research labels out of the care comparison
In September 2026, FDA said products labelled “for research use only” could still be unapproved drugs if sold for use by people.
FDA warned people to avoid weight-loss products with a “for research purposes” label or a “not for human consumption” label, because their unknown quality could cause harm.
If an offer has these words, ask what medicine is being supplied. A research label is not proof of approval.
Medicine terms, unpacked
- Peptide
- A small chain of the units that form proteins.
- FDA-approved
- At the September 2026 check, FDA-approved meant a particular medicine had been reviewed by the US drug agency for a stated use.
- Compounded medicine
- Compounding creates a custom medicine; as of September 2026, medicines prepared this way had no FDA approval.
- Active ingredient
- The part of a medicine responsible for its intended effect.
- Generic medicine
- A generic medicine is a version of a brand medicine that has approval; in September 2026, US law did not allow the sale of generic semaglutide or tirzepatide.