(NewsNation) — With diabetes and weight loss medications financially out of reach for some, “compounded” drugs that cost much less have grown in popularity.
The Los Angeles Times this week published an article detailing the story of one woman whose health insurance provider denied her coverage to get Ozempic for weight loss as she did not have diabetes
It would have been more than $1,000 for her to pay out of pocket for Ozempic, so she went to a clinic that gave her a cheaper alternative using the popular drug’s active ingredient: semaglutide. This compounded version made by a specialized pharmacy cost her $350 a month, the Los Angeles Times wrote, and the woman was able to lose 50 pounds.
In addition, NBC News reported Friday about health care providers who say they’re starting to feel more comfortable prescribing compounded versions of popular weight loss drugs.
“Not only are physicians more OK with prescribing compounded GLP-1 medications, but they are also advocating for them,” Dr. Shauna Levy, a specialist in obesity medicine and the medical director of the Tulane Bariatric Center in New Orleans, told NBC.
What are compounded medications?
Compounding, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is when a licensed pharmacist, physician or someone under their supervision “combines, mixes, or alters ingredients of a drug to create a medication tailored to the needs of an individual patient.”
Federal law has certain requirements for when, how and who can compound a drug. Requirements include the compounded medication having components that are approved by the FDA, an applicable USP or NF monograph or an appearance on the FDA’s list of bulk drug substances. Compounded medications are not themselves approved by the FDA, though.
Medications are compounded when someone cannot take the FDA-approved alternative for health reasons, such as allergies, or when a certain drug is on a shortage list. Both semaglutide and tirzepatide are included on this list.
What have people said about compounding?
“Although compounded drugs can serve an important medical need for certain patients, they also present a risk to patients,” the Food and Drug Administration said.
Pharmaceutical companies Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have sued clinics and pharmacies that have made compounded medications, arguing they “create a high risk of consumer confusion and deception” as “well as potential safety concerns.”
In addition, experts who spoke to NBC cautioned that it’s important that doctors prescribe drugs from trusted compounded pharmacists and that patients get prescriptions from doctors and fill them at state-licensed pharmacies. A study published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open found that 42% of online pharmacies selling semaglutide are operating illegally.
Scott Brunner, chief executive of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, did acknowledge there is “awful advice” that can be found about weight loss drugs on social media.
“I spend half my time trying to differentiate between some of the sketchy stuff that is going on online,” Brunner told the Los Angeles Times.
Still, the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding says that the practice can play an essential role in the American health care system when done correctly.
“While manufactured drugs are the standard, those don’t come in strengths and dosage forms that are right for everyone, and health care practitioners need to be able to prescribe customized medications when, in their judgment, a manufactured drug is not the best course of therapy for a human or animal patient,” it said in a statement.