Supply and shortages

Supply and shortages have been a defining feature of the GLP-1 era. Demand — for both diabetes and weight management — repeatedly outran manufacturing capacity, and the FDA has at various points listed semaglutide and tirzepatide products as being in shortage. The situation keeps evolving (shortages easing and resolving as capacity expands), so it’s worth checking current status rather than assuming.

How shortages actually affect you

The knock-on effects are practical and sometimes clinical:

• Dose gaps. If your dose is unavailable, you may face an unwanted break — which can mean appetite rebound and, after a long enough gap, a rough restart (see missed doses).
• Pharmacy-hopping. Patients often call around to find a pharmacy with their strength in stock.
• Being stuck at a titration step, because the next dose isn’t available — sometimes clinically fine, sometimes frustrating.
• The rise of compounded semaglutide, whose legal basis was tied directly to shortage status. As shortages resolve, that basis narrows.

How to protect yourself

• Refill early when you can, rather than on the last day.
• Keep a dose log so any gap is documented — useful for your prescriber when deciding how to restart, and for spotting whether a pharmacy switch changed anything.
• Don’t jump doses to stretch supply on your own; talk to your prescriber about a plan if a gap is coming.
• Watch for restart effects. After a break, nausea tolerance can reset — a slower restart may be needed (a prescriber decision).

Shortages are a system problem you can’t fix individually, but a little planning — early refills, a documented history, an honest conversation before a gap — softens most of the impact.