There is no generic semaglutide for sale in the United States. The only approved semaglutide products are the maker's own brands, and the one generic application FDA has acted on is approved only tentatively.
What people often mean by generic is compounded semaglutide. That is a different thing, priced in the compounded semaglutide cost guide and explained in the compounded peptides guide.
The one generic application, and why it cannot be sold
Drugs@FDA lists abbreviated application 220314 from Apotex for a semaglutide injection in three strengths[2]. Its action, dated April 7, 2026, is a tentative approval, and its marketing status reads “None (Tentative Approval)”[2].
A tentative approval is a finding that the application is ready while something else still blocks it. For semaglutide, the Orange Book shows what that is: patents and exclusivities listed against the brand.
What the Orange Book lists against Wegovy
March 8, 2027
Exclusivity I-935 expires
August 15, 2028
Exclusivity I-973 expires
December 5, 2031
Patent 8129343 expires
Listed as a drug-substance and drug-product patent.
The Orange Book lists patent 8129343 as a drug-substance and drug-product patent on Wegovy, expiring December 5, 2031[1]. It also lists later patents on the product and its uses, running into 2041[1].
Those dates are listings, not a forecast. A patent can be challenged or settled, and a launch date is the product of that process rather than of the table alone.
Compounded semaglutide is not a generic
A generic is FDA-approved as the same drug as the brand. A compounded drug is not FDA-approved, and FDA does not review it for safety, effectiveness or quality before it is sold[4].
FDA declared the semaglutide injection shortage resolved on February 21, 2025[3]. For state-licensed pharmacies, the grace period for shortage-based copies ended after a court denied a preliminary injunction on April 24, 2025[3]. Outsourcing facilities had until May 22, 2025[3].
What remains is the ordinary rule. A 503A pharmacy compounds for an individual patient on a prescription[5], and may not regularly compound what are essentially copies of a commercially available drug[3]. FDA said in April 2026 that it does not intend to act where a compounder fills four or fewer prescriptions of such a copy in a calendar month[3].
A prescriber can document that a patient needs a change that makes a significant difference, and then the product is not treated as a copy[3]. The two pharmacy tiers are set out in 503A vs 503B.
What compounded semaglutide costs
Compounded semaglutide injection has a typical price of $184 a month, across 380 sellers that publish one, read through September 2026. The maker’s self-pay Wegovy box is $349, so the gap is $165 a box at the typical price.
Added ingredients change the product, and often the price; that is covered in semaglutide with B12. FDA counts 990 adverse event reports tied to compounded semaglutide as of May 31, 2026[4], and says the true number is likely higher because most pharmacies need not report them[4].
The question to ask a seller
If a seller calls its product generic semaglutide, ask for the pharmacy’s name and whether it is a 503A pharmacy or a 503B outsourcing facility. No approved generic exists to sell, so the answer tells you what the product actually is. The brand’s own price is in the Wegovy cost guide. The same questions for the other compounded GLP-1 are in is compounded tirzepatide legal.