Westend61/Getty Images hide caption Jennie Smith, a seamstress at a ballet school in Kent, Ohio, had been trying to lose weight and keep it off for years. After losing 60 pounds through dieting only to gain 30 of it back, she wanted to try the new weight-loss drugs like Wegovy. But they cost more than $1,000 a month and she didn't think her insurance would cover it.
So Smith did some research and found a cheaper version on one of dozens of online pharmacies that tout their own copies of these weight-loss drugs. She did a virtual appointment with a health care provider to figure out the right dose, and the pharmacy sent the drug to her a few weeks later on dry ice. The price: around $300 a month.
She’s lost 40 pounds since September. “It was like a light switch,” she says. “As soon as I started taking it, I noticed not only was I not eating, but I wasn't thinking about food.
” But it wasn’t exactly Wegovy. Smith got what’s called a compounded medicine. It’s made with the same basic ingredient as Wegovy – semaglutide – but by a specialized pharmacy, not a drug company.
With the growing demand for weight-loss drugs like Wegovy, new online companies seem to pop up every day, offering telehealth prescribing of cheaper, compounded versions of the medicines. And for some patients, they offer a reprieve from the high name-brand prices, insurance company coverage denials and drug shortages. The convenience and cost can be appealing, but there are some risks.
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