Compounded Tirzepatide now illegal (Zepbound, Mounjaro)

[SwampNut]

And may also apply to semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) eventually.  Millions of people are on it, and now have to either pay up to $1100/mo or turn to the Chinese stuff.  This includes many diabetics who really can't just go without it.

 

[DaveK]

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-clarifies-policies-compounders-national-glp-1-supply-begins-stabilize

[SwampNut]

I suspect my flow of emails asking for how to DIY is going to turn from a few a day to dozens.

[SwampNut]

An annoying millionaire blowhard cunt said on her TV show today that people should just pay for the real thing and deal with it.  Privilege is so blinding.  I wonder how much she pays her personal chef and dedicated nutritionist?

 

[superhawk996]

On 3/8/2025 at 8:01 AM, SwampNut said:

pay up to $1100/mo or turn to the Chinese

 

9 hours ago, SwampNut said:

Privilege is so blinding.  I wonder how much she pays her personal chef and dedicated nutritionist?

Guessing around $1100/mo, unless she has a Mexican cook and Chinese nutritionist.

[SwampNut]

I guess I should stock up for the future before "everyone" turns Chinese and depletes supplies.  That happened a year ago when they first talked about canceling the supply exemption.

 

[jon haney]

7 hours ago, SwampNut said:

I guess I should stock up for the future before "everyone" turns Chinese and depletes supplies.  That happened a year ago when they first talked about canceling the supply exemption.

 

New tariff?

 

Where is that stick-poking emoticon?

[SwampNut]

LOL, they are already marked as cosmetics with like $5 value, so...

 

[SwampNut]

I hadn't thought of this...

 

Quote

But overall, I think the past two years have been a fun experiment in semi-free-market medicine. I don’t mean the patent violations - it’s no surprise that you can sell drugs cheap if you violate the patent - I mean everything else. For the past three years, ~2 million people have taken complex peptides provided direct-to-consumer by a less-regulated supply chain, with barely a fig leaf of medical oversight, and it went great. There were no more side effects than any other medication. People who wanted to lose weight lost weight. And patients had a more convenient time than if they’d had to wait for the official supply chain to meet demand, get a real doctor, spend thousands of dollars on doctors’ visits, apply for insurance coverage, and go to a pharmacy every few weeks to pick up their next prescription. Now pharma companies have noticed and are working on patent-compliant versions of the same idea. Hopefully there will be more creative business models like this one in the future.

 

 

This was a massive experiment that proved that most prescription drugs shouldn't be limited to prescription.

 

From this article:

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-ozempocalypse-is-nigh

[02XXCA]

Looks like you may be able to get Wegovy without prescription on Hims/Hers web pharmacy site with reduced pricing.

Edited April 29, 2025 by 02XXCA

[SwampNut]

There are many sites that have been providing Wegovy and Ozempic with a self-issued prescription.  It's the same thing that those sites do with sildenafil, ramelteon, etc etc.  They just have Indian/Paki doctors on "staff" churning out prescriptions.  Same with Amazon too, and super cheap on what they sell.

 

[racer212]

I'm coming into this conversation completely ignorant on the topic. I know nothing about these drugs, how they work, why insurance doesnt cover it. Nothing.

 

Last night my wife hit me up - she wants to go on Zepbound. Her doctor will prescribe it but says shes gonna need an expensive dose ($800-$900 a month).

 

Like- REALLY? 

 

[DaveK]

Been on it for 16 months. Lost 130 pounds. With a Lily coupon I pay $650. I could fight with insurance them having paid for 1 heart attack already - but for $8,000 a year, it’s not worth my time to argue with them and spend hours on the phone. 
 

 

[DaveK]

14 minutes ago, racer212 said:

I'm coming into this conversation completely ignorant. 

 

Oh and….we’re used to it ❤️😍

[DaveK]

https://zepbound.lilly.com/coverage-savings

[DaveK]

[SwampNut]

32 minutes ago, racer212 said:

I'm coming into this conversation completely ignorant on the topic. I know nothing about these drugs, how they work, why insurance doesnt cover it. Nothing.

 

Last night my wife hit me up - she wants to go on Zepbound. Her doctor will prescribe it but says shes gonna need an expensive dose ($800-$900 a month).

 

Like- REALLY? 

 

 

Zepbound is officially available directly from Eli Lilly for $500/mo now (or maybe next month).  You can split doses of the pens to bring that down by using less than the max dose.  I can supply it for around $20-40/mo.

 

A couple people on the forum are getting it from my/my suppliers but it's up to them if they want to speak up, they may not.  

 

[SwampNut]

Oh, and ask away, or let's have a call.  I don't know how much you've seen about how deep I'm into the peptide stuff.

 

[DaveK]

I choose not to go black market for drugs but many people do. The $500 deal with Lily Direct is up to and including 10mg. Nothing higher. 
 

 

Edited June 17, 2025 by DaveK

[SwampNut]

Gray market, by definition.

 

[DaveK]

True. If I didn’t have the money, I’d be all over it. If when a medical professional recommends I go down to 10 or below I’ll definitely do the self inject vials for $499

Edited June 17, 2025 by DaveK

[SwampNut]

4 minutes ago, DaveK said:

If when a medical professional recommends I go down to 10 or below I’ll definitely do the self inject vials for $499

 

All doses are available now at that price.  Not sure why anyone would pay for the 2.5 dose, and I think Lilly knows it.  They're caving to the gray market, it had to happen.  Anarchy and free markets fixes problems.

 

My doctor recommended I try 8mg for a while, but with other blood sugar controls.  So far, it's good, but just three weeks in.

 

[DaveK]

Nah, not now. I think they said sometime in August on the last investor call. 

Edited June 18, 2025 by DaveK

[SwampNut]

Hilarious that they think they can rebottle that genie.  Love to see them flailing.

 

[SwampNut]

Back to the original topic, Lilly's attempts to stop this are failing in hilarious ways.  Yesterday afternoon I went to a local med-spa place to show them some pens they can fill themselves for their patients, and give a little overview of Cagrilintide and Cagri-Sema.  (And I've been on Cagrilintide for a few weeks, allowing me to cut back Tirzepatide and therefore its major side effects.)  Anyway one of the easy ways they have around these restrictions also happens to mesh with a patient benefit.  Tirzepatide is marketed as a weekly injection, but that's not optimal.  The drug has a half-life of 117.5 hours, so five days.  This means that you only get four days of peak effectiveness and the rest are suboptimal.  So they prescribe it on a five day schedule.  The patient gets better results, and it totally bypasses the restriction.  That's based on an FDA loophole allowing a prescriber to go off-brand to get something custom made if it's best for the patient.

 

Problem solved.

 

I left them a bunch of 3D printed pen cases as giveaways for "most weight lost" and "best blood sugar stability," etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And stands for filling the pen vials.