The caution primer

Know which claims call for a pause.

Keep the exact product in view. A confident label or polished page still leaves questions about the medicine and the person responsible for care.

Before agreeing to a plan

Clear answers make a plan easier to examine.

What a claim says / what it proves

Federal product cautions, as of September 26, 2026.

In the US, medicine approval is handled by the Food and Drug Administration, also called FDA.

FDA warns that weight-loss products labelled “research use only” have unknown quality and may harm people who use them.

Pause if the seller calls it a research product but offers it to treat you.

A business can register with FDA, and a drug can appear in FDA’s records, without the medicine being approved.

Those records also do not prove the drug can legally be sold.

Ask which exact product is approved and where that record can be checked.

A doctor or pharmacist prepares a compounded medicine to order.

A compounded drug lacks FDA approval, so calling it approved is misleading.

Ask for the actual product name and an explanation of why compounding is proposed.

Handing over a prescription drug without an order from someone licensed to prescribe breaks federal law.

A shortcut around the assessment is a reason to stop and check the offer.

For weight control, semaglutide is sold as Wegovy; the type 2 diabetes brand is Ozempic.

Mounjaro is the tirzepatide brand for type 2 diabetes; for weight control, tirzepatide is sold as Zepbound.

FDA has found fake labels for compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide that name pharmacies which do not exist.

It has also found labels naming licensed pharmacies that did not make the medicine.

Get the pharmacy’s name before agreeing to a plan. Match it against the state board’s record, then ask the pharmacy to confirm the product.

Handling information checked September 17, 2026.

Storage varies: some peptide medicines need a refrigerator, while others stay at room temperature.

The medicine’s label and instructions from the pharmacy that supplied it tell you how to store it.

GLP-1 is a name used for medicines for blood sugar or weight control, including semaglutide and tirzepatide.

FDA says not to use a GLP-1 injection, such as semaglutide, that arrives warm or was not refrigerated as instructed.

Ask the pharmacy which storage rule applies to your medicine, what temperature it needs and whether your delivery met that rule.

As of September 26, 2026, FDA reports people taking the wrong amount of compounded semaglutide injections, with some needing hospital care.

If a label is unclear, have the person prescribing or the pharmacist explain it before use.

Keep medicine questions with the people handling the prescription.

MedWatch is FDA’s reporting service for medicine problems, and patients can submit a report themselves.