GLP-1, explained
Four things to know before comparing GLP-1 prices, each computed from the records the rest of the site shows. Those are 15 medications with their trial figures and verified prices, and 156 FDA warning letters, so the text moves when the data does.
No clinician has reviewed this page. Label and trial statements are quoted from the FDA label or the trial cited beside them. General guidance is marked as such, and every price carries the date it was verified. That is sourcing, not medical review. What we do and do not check · Who checked the price
The strongest and the cheapest are not the same drug, and not close
Zepbound reports the highest trial figure at 20.9% of body weight; Qsymia, which is not a GLP-1, is the cheapest verified month at $75 against $499 at the top. Nobody buys their way from one to the other: the cheap end reports 9.8%, and a lower price per point of weight lost is not a lower price for the same result.
3 of the drugs sold for weight loss here are not GLP-1s at all
Contrave, Phentermine, Qsymia act on nothing in this class. They cost a fraction of the injections and report smaller trial figures, and comparing them on "which works better" compares different mechanisms rather than different strengths.
Every GLP-1 molecule, and the 12 names they are sold under →
A year is not twelve times a month
A box of weekly pens lasts 28 days, which makes a year of injections thirteen fills rather than twelve. The early months are a different dose at a different price, and the conditional self-pay rates re-price if a refill window is missed — so the advertised figure multiplied by twelve is wrong twice over.
The cheap route is cheap because nobody reviewed it
Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are not FDA approved and were never assessed for safety, efficacy or quality — a statement about legal status, not a finding of harm. halfrx stores 156 FDA warning letters in this category, each linked to its original on fda.gov.
The questions, at length
What a GLP-1 is, and what each one costs
GLP-1 is a hormone your gut releases when you eat. The drugs named after it are copies that last longer, and the reason they work for weight is the same reason they were built for diabetes.
GLP-1 vs GLP-3
There is no GLP-3. No drug, no receptor by that name in this class, nothing approved or in trials under it. The search is real and rising fast, so it is worth saying plainly what people are usually reaching for.
Is compounded semaglutide safe?
Compounded semaglutide is not an FDA-approved product and has never been reviewed for safety, efficacy or quality. That is a statement about its legal status rather than a finding that it is dangerous, and the difference between those two things is the whole answer.
The case for and against a GLP-1
The honest version of this list is shorter than most and has numbers in it. What follows is drawn from the labels, the named trials and the prices verified on this site — not from a balance of opinions.
The registers behind every drug fact here
Every clinical statement on this site is quoted from a label rather than interpreted, and these hold the labels.
- DailyMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine — The register every FDA label quoted on this site is read from, with the version history that dates each one.
- Drugs@FDA: FDA-approved drugs — What is approved, for which indication, and when — the register behind every approval date here.