A guide to choosing care
Two pages use the same ingredient name, yet the products sound different. Before comparing the claims, separate the ingredient, the named product and the reason it is being considered.
The FDA is the United States drug agency. It approves a named product for a named use.
That does not cover every offer that uses the same drug name.
The ingredient is the drug substance in the product. The brand is the product’s name.
Type 2 diabetes is an illness affecting blood sugar.
Obesity is a medical term for a weight group based on height and weight.
As of September 2026, the Ozempic shot has approval for type 2 diabetes.
Wegovy shots and pills have approval for weight care in adults.
That use covers obesity, or overweight with a linked health problem.
Ask for the exact productMounjaro has type 2 diabetes approval as of September 2026.
Zepbound has approval for weight care in adults.
That use covers obesity, or overweight with a linked health problem.
Match the product to the purposeVictoza’s approval covers type 2 diabetes, as of September 2026.
Saxenda has approval for weight care.
Read the medicine labelsA product’s approval does not settle the choice for you. Ask how it fits your health history.
Compounding means making a drug to order for a specific need. A pharmacy or doctor may make it.
As of September 2026, these compounded drugs are not approved by the FDA.
Before patients receive a compounded drug, the agency does not check its quality, benefits or harms.
Federal law limits how pharmacies and doctors make copies of drugs already on the market, as of September 2026.
They cannot make those copies often or in large amounts.
A health professional with authority to order prescription drugs is called a prescriber.
A change to the medicine may be allowed for one named patient. For that individual, the prescriber must decide that the change would make a medically important difference.
Ask what is different about the medicine and how that difference matters to your health.
Price savings by themselves do not satisfy that test.
Large compounding firms face another federal rule: their medicines must not be essentially copies of FDA-approved drugs. This restricts medicines that closely match an approved product.
For a compounded offer, ask which rule applies and which personal need the medicine meets.
Ask which need the compounded product meetsA brand-name drug’s approved copy is called a generic. It is a different category from a compounded drug made to order.
For semaglutide and for tirzepatide, the United States market still lacks an approved generic as of September 2026.
Approved generic copies of liraglutide do exist at that date.
Some are for weight care; others are for type 2 diabetes.
These groups have different approved uses. The FDA does not treat the two groups as substitutes for each other.
Read the approval and compounding sources