Brand vs compounded semaglutide — September 2026

I'm going to rant for a second: it's absolutely INSANE that we have a medication that works this well for obesity and diabetes, and people can't get it because of a "shortage." This has been going on for over two years. At some point it stops being a shortage and starts being a manufacturing failure.

Novo Nordisk's revenue from semaglutide was over $20 BILLION last year. They can afford to build more factories. The fact that patients are going weeks without their medication because the company can't keep up with demand is inexcusable.

rant over sorry 😤

Totally valid frustration. We have a shortage mega-thread pinned at the top of the forum that gets updated weekly with stock reports by region. I'd recommend checking there for real-time availability info.

Also reminder: please don't share specific pharmacy locations with stock publicly — it leads to pharmacy-hopping and worsens the shortage for local patients. DMs are fine.

UPDATE: Called a specialty pharmacy my doctor recommended and they were able to get my 1.7mg pen within 3 days. The regular chain pharmacies still show out of stock. Specialty pharmacies seem to have different supply channels.

Total time off: 17 days. Appetite definitely came back but not to pre-sema levels. Took my injection yesterday and already feeling the appetite suppression returning. Hopefully the shortage improves but I'm keeping this specialty pharmacy on speed dial going forward.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. This community keeps me sane 🙏

glad you found it! I switched to compounded 3 months ago specifically because of the shortage situation and honestly I wish I'd done it sooner. Same results, never a supply issue, fraction of the cost. Just my experience.