Legal, safety, and practical considerations of compounded injectable semaglutide
Allison Spitery Pharm.D.
Department of Pharmacy, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMary J. Elder Pharm.D.
Department of Pharmacy, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Search for more papers by this authorNada Farhat Pharm.D.
Department of Pharmacy, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Search for more papers by this authorInsaf Mohammad Pharm.D.
Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Department of Pharmacy, Corewell Health Dearborn Hospital, Dearborn, Michigan, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Alison Lobkovich Pharm.D.
Department of Pharmacy, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Correspondence
Alison Lobkovich, Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wayne State University, 259 Mack Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorAllison Spitery Pharm.D.
Department of Pharmacy, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMary J. Elder Pharm.D.
Department of Pharmacy, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Search for more papers by this authorNada Farhat Pharm.D.
Department of Pharmacy, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Search for more papers by this authorInsaf Mohammad Pharm.D.
Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Department of Pharmacy, Corewell Health Dearborn Hospital, Dearborn, Michigan, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Alison Lobkovich Pharm.D.
Department of Pharmacy, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Correspondence
Alison Lobkovich, Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wayne State University, 259 Mack Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
The use of long-acting incretin-based therapies, such as semaglutide, has increased in recent years due to their benefits for glycemic control in diabetes, cardiovascular risk reduction, and weight management. Ongoing drug shortages have led clinicians and patients to seek alternative routes for accessing these therapies, including the use of non-United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved compounded incretin-based therapy. This review paper describes the legal, safety, and practical considerations of compounded injectable semaglutide for diabetes and weight management. While this paper is specific to injectable semaglutide, the concepts described apply to all compounded injectable incretin-based therapies. While there is a general recommendation against the use of non–FDA-approved compounded incretin analogs, if clinicians elect to use compounded incretin-based therapy, the potential harms and benefits for each patient must be considered, and patients must be properly educated on the correct administration of the product they receive.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
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