Compounded or brand: what the difference costs

Across 387 programs publishing a cash price, the median compounded program asks $199 a month and the median brand program $499 — a difference of $300. The gap is real, and it is not the whole story: the two are different products, bought under different rules.

Research by Treatment Registry · Our method

Published September 2026 · Updated September 2026

Observation window: August 2026–October 2026. The newest reading does not mean every program was checked then.

1. They are not the same product
2. What the difference costs
3. Insurance changes the question entirely
4. What to establish before you compare

They are not the same product

A brand GLP-1 is a manufactured medicine sold under a name you will recognize. A compounded one is prepared by a pharmacy, and the register records 358 programs selling one against 29 selling the other at a cash price. Reading the two figures below as a discount on the same thing is the single easiest mistake to make in this market.

What the difference costs

Both figures are the cheapest unconditional price each program publishes at its shortest term, so they answer the same question of every company.

The two are not spread alike, and the medians alone hide it. Half of the compounded programs sit between $149 and $249. Half of the brand programs sit between $299 and $1,299 — a range several times wider, because brand pricing runs from a discounted manufacturer program up to the full list price of the medicine.

387 matched · 387 programs with a cash price assessed · 696 not yet checked · 1139 entries in the register

Other medication categories sit outside that comparison and are counted separately. 39 39 programs selling Unspecified GLP-1 at a median of $170; 17 17 programs selling Oral semaglutide at a median of $229. Combined programs, oral categories and programs with unidentified ingredients are separate populations; their prices are not folded into the single-ingredient comparison.

Insurance changes the question entirely

0 0 programs in the register lead with a figure that depends on a reader having coverage — a copay rather than a cash price, sometimes as low as $25 a month. Those are set aside above, and the reason matters more than the arithmetic.

A copay is the number a reader is least likely to pay and the number most likely to win a comparison, because it is the smallest one on the page. It depends on the plan, on whether the plan covers weight management at all, and on a deductible the company usually mentions in the same sentence. Where a program publishes one, the entry records it and shows it — it simply is not treated as the program's price. If a brand program is within reach for you, coverage is the thing to establish first, because it moves the figure further than any choice of company will.

What to establish before you compare

1. Which is it? A program advertising a low monthly figure for a GLP-1 is, in this register, usually selling a compounded preparation.
2. Is the figure a cash price or a copay? If it depends on insurance, it is not comparable with a cash price from another company.
3. Does the price include the medication? Several brand programs sell a membership and let the manufacturer bill for the drug separately.

Every figure here is computed from the 1139 entries in this register when the page is built, across 436 companies, and each one links back to the company's own sentence and the date it was read. The register is browsable and the data is downloadable.

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