The U.S. food and drug administration has just announced that the weight loss drug Tirzepatide is “officially” no longer in short supply. Tirzepatide is marketed by the big pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound. The recent FDA announcement that the 2+ year shortage for Tirzepatide has ended may sound like good news if you are someone who wants to lose weight or lower your blood sugar, as it might be covered by your health insurance. It's not good news. Not if you live in the United States anyways.
For the millions of people who have prescriptions for Tirzepatide currently being filled by US compounding pharmacies through FDA shortage protocols, it is very bad news. These people are presently paying reasonable prices for generic versions of Tirzepadide from compounding pharmacies with no supply issues. Since the FDA is reporting the shortage is officially “over”, compounding pharmacies can no longer produce the generic products, and the current millions of compounding patients will now have to rely on Eli Lilly’s much more expensive retail brand name versions and possibly the previous supply failures in the United States.
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This is bad news for consumers in the US but a good business opportunity for us here in the Baja where we can safely source compounded Tirzepatide as well as Semaglutide. Our compounding pharmacies are not being hamstrung by big pharma or COFEPRIS, (the Mexican version of the FDA).
Tirzepatide is a synthesized drug based on a peptide that occurs naturally in our bodies and appears to be even more effective for weight loss and blood sugar control than Semaglutide, widely known under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy. The main difference between Tirzepatide and Semaglutide is that Semaglutide acts on a single receptor, (GLP-1), while Tirzepatide acts on dual receptors, (GLP 1 and GIP), making Tirzepatide slightly more effective for weight loss.
Both Terzepatide and Semaglutide brand name drugs are outrageously expensive starting at $1060 retail per month. Even if you have good insurance to cover the bulk of the cost, it may be impossible to get your doctor to write a prescription and have your insurance cover it unless you are a type-2 diabetic or clinically obese. This leaves most cash paying patients who have made these medications part of their wellness routine, out in the cold. Until early October 2024 compounding pharmacies in the US were allowed to produce a compounded copy of Tirzepatide for around $427 per month, less than half the cost of the brand name product. Telemedicine and mail order were being used for safely supervised distribution.
Fortunately for patients in Los Cabos, weight loss and anti-aging doctors here in Cabo will soon be able to offer Tirzepatide at much lower prices of $125 per month. Semaglutide is already available here through selected doctors for just under $100 per month. As I mentioned in a previous article, you should be taking weight loss peptides under a doctor's supervision. Side effects have been reported mainly due to people overdosing themselves.
Contrary to anti-GLP 1 propaganda, Semaglutide and Tirrzepatide can help us lose fat and build muscle too if taken in the right amounts with good nutrition and a properly executed strength training program. The bottom line is you don’t have to be diabetic or clinically obese to benefit from micro dosing GLP 1s. Personally, I am neither diabetic nor obese but I microdose GLP1 to reduce my risk of Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and heart disease. I cycle off it every 8 weeks, so I don’t develop a resistance to it. This enables me to keep the dose very low, eliminating potential side effects.
The real problem with GLP 1s is they are being prescribed at too high a starting dose and ratcheted up too quickly. Mounting evidence points to a very safe usage profile at smaller doses when combined with lifestyle improvements to diet, sleep and exercise regimes. One recent study in the UK showed a daily dose of the GLP 1 Liraglutide slowed brain shrinkage in Alzheimer's patients. Liraglutide apparently makes the brain less insulin-resistant and could be a breakthrough in combating tau proteins and plaques also.
One of the major concerns of making legally compounded GLP 1s illegal in the US, is that these drugs will now thrive in the black market. People will still be able to get these compounds illegally and without a doctor's supervision. Shutting down the compounding pharmacies will result in a massive increase in demand in the black market.
In Cabo we now have access to Semaglutide multi-dose pens under a doctor's supervision starting around $100 per month and in November 2024, we will have doctor-supervised access to Tirzepatide for $125 per month. The Semaglutide starter injections can also be obtained once per week at a clinic for $25 for people who cannot afford the $300 dollar 3-month multi-dose pen. This will be great for hard working Mexicans who do not have affordable, supervised access to safe Semaglutide. Mexico has one of the highest rates of type 2 diabetes in the world. Nearly 17% of the Mexican population had diabetes as of 2022 and it is rising.
What is the difference between Tirzepatide and Semaglutide? In the SURPASS clinical trials published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in April 2024, Tirzepatide lowered A1C levels 2.07% more effectively than Semaglutide. Tirzepatide resulted in reduced body weight by as much as 20.9%, depending on the dosage and duration of treatment. Semaglutide was also very effective, but patients lost slightly less body weight than the Tirzepatide group over the same period of time.
Like most of the peptides that have made it into widespread use in the general population, GLP 1s are being found to have unexpected beneficial effects. This is in stark contrast to big pharma’s popular weight loss drugs that had to be removed from the market due to unexpected negative effects, such as death for example. Remember Fen-phen and Redux?
For more information or questions on today's article, please feel free to contact me at robynlittlewood@yahoo.com or shoot me a WhatsApp or text at +526242119435 and I will help if I can.
