Nearby still needs a California check
Made to order needs its own set of checks.
For a medicine prepared to order, ask why a ready-made medicine cannot meet your needs. Check what is being made and which rule allows the pharmacy to use that ingredient.
Making to order is different from approval
An approved finished product
Ask why that product can or cannot meet the medical need.
A medicine made to order
Compounding is the process of making medicine to order. A pharmacy, doctor, or larger medicine-making facility can do this.
Made-to-order medicines have not received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval as of September 26, 2026.
FDA does not check how well a made-to-order medicine is made, whether it is safe, or whether it works before it reaches patients.
According to FDA, compounding may address a need that approved medicine cannot meet, or supply medicine when an approved product is unavailable.
Open the sources for this check
Ask why a pharmacy needs to make a copy
Federal law limits pharmacies and doctors that make copies of ready-made medicines repeatedly or in unusually large amounts (as of September 26, 2026).
FDA looks at whether the main ingredient, the amount of it, and the way it is taken match a ready-made medicine. Similar amounts can still count as a copy.
Larger medicine-making facilities that sign up with FDA face a separate rule against copying approved medicines.
For a particular patient, the prescriber can write down a change to the medicine and why it makes an important medical difference for that person.
A cheaper price does not count as an important medical difference.
FDA’s national shortage list includes neither semaglutide nor tirzepatide as of September 26, 2026.
A pharmacy can run out of stock locally without the drug being listed as a national shortage.
Ask what is being changed, such as an ingredient or the amount of it, and why that change matters medically for you.
A medicine can still count as a copy after a vitamin is added. The prescriber still needs to explain an important medical difference for you.
Open the sources for this check
A request taken back is not permission to make a medicine
FDA’s page dated April 22, 2026 lists requests that people or groups took back after asking to use raw ingredients in made-to-order medicines. Examples include BPC-157, ipamorelin acetate, and MOTS-c. FDA still lists safety concerns beside them.
Taking back a request does not mean FDA found the ingredient safe.
As of September 26, 2026, taking back those requests did not give pharmacies permission to make medicines with those ingredients.
An advisory committee is a group whose role is to advise FDA. Its vote does not change the official list of extra raw ingredients pharmacies may use. FDA must change that list through a formal rule process.
FDA’s July 2026 meeting discussed adding peptide ingredients, including BPC-157 and MOTS-c, to that official list.
The committee’s votes still had no published official FDA record as of September 26, 2026. The meeting itself did not give permission to make your medicine.
Ask the pharmacist to name the current rule that allows your medicine’s ingredient and the way it will be used.
Check who makes the medicine