Patients scramble as cheaper obesity drug alternatives disappear

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When Christina and Jackson Agar used to get a pizza, they'd polish it off the same night. Things are different now that they're both taking an obesity drug.

"We recently ordered a pizza and we ate some of it the first night and then the next day we had maybe a little bit more," says Christina. "And then we ended up throwing the pizza away because it had gone past the days that you could eat it. And it was so strange because we have never done that."

"No, never," her husband, Jackson, says.

They've each lost about 20 pounds in six weeks. But the Agars, who live in Minnesota, aren't taking Eli Lilly's Zepbound; their insurance doesn't cover it.

They're taking a cheaper alternative that contains the active ingredient called tirzepatide.

It's made by a compounding pharmacy, which is a special kind of pharmacy that's allowed to essentially make copies of drugs during shortages.

Since starting on the compounded tirzepatide, Christina says she has more energy for their four kids. And Jackson doesn't need his sleep apnea machine anymore. (In December, the Food and Drug Administration approved Zepbound to treat sleep apnea.)

"It is completely life-changing to take a bite of these triggering foods and just be like, enjoy it, say, 'Yup, that was good and now I'm full,' " he says.

But the compounded drugs the Agars and others have come to rely on aren't here to stay.

The FDA says compounding pharmacies have to stop making tirzepatide because the agency declared the yearlong Zepbound shortage over. The deadline is Wednesday.

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