Name brand blues?!

C

Core-TBH

Well-known member
Hey everyone - I've been using a compounded version since last spring and it's been going fairly well. With the adjusted costs of Zepbound, it works out better for my insurance to have my doctor prescribe the 15mg vials and measure my smaller doses. Today was my first day trying the name brand version. I felt nauseated and dizzy immediately. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm stuck in bed on Christmas. :(
 
Did you check the dosage carefully? The pre-filled pens have a different concentration than the compounds usually do. If you took the same volume you normally do, you may have gotten too much. That's my guess.

If you accounted for the higher concentration, when did you inject today? If your stomach was empty, that could trigger the nausea. Also, what did you eat? Did you have any alcohol?

I've switched between name brand pens and compounded versions and haven't noticed much difference.

I hope you start feeling better very soon!
 
Ugh, I've been there. Eating a lot on shot day or the night before is a terrible move! I'm so hungry on day 7 of Mounjaro, I always regret it.
 
That's what I thought too. I'm on 5mg, and I calculated .166mL, so it shouldn't be an overdose. I took it after eating a little. I had half a beer and decided I didn't want anymore. The only different thing was switching to the name brand. I'm wondering if the compound has vitamin b6, and maybe I need it.
 
How did you measure smaller doses from the Zepbound pens? Aren't they single-use? Did you use sterile water to stretch it and add a preservative? I thought the Zepbound pens only use sterile water, not the benz alcohol found in compound vials?

I'm not trying to call you out. I'm just curious since I've heard about people doing this.
 
Not the OP, but I've seen people on Reddit say they use their Zepbound vials for multiple doses. One person said their doctor, who had pharmacology training, said it was okay for a few punctures.

I don't trust anything the manufacturer says about shelf stability, freezing, or preservatives. They benefit from saying the vials are single-use. I think they hoped vials would end the shortage and stop compounding.

I considered splitting Zepbound doses but it's not cost-effective. Now, I'm using my remaining vials (about 25) by splitting with family. I inject her dose, then draw the rest for my dose and supplement with compound.
 
I wipe the top of the vial, insert the syringe, and take out what I need. Then, I wipe everything again and put it in a sterile container in the fridge. Each vial has a little over three doses. It's how they tell you to do it with the compound, so I assumed it would be fine with the name brand. According to the manufacturer, their product is stable in the fridge for over a year. So, while they say not to reuse vials, I think it's a small risk.
 
I assumed this was obvious, but I was wrong.

The reason you can't do this is that compound is made with a preservative that allows a single vial to be used multiple times. It prevents bacterial growth.

Single-use, name-brand vials don't have a preservative. You're risking bacteria contamination after the first puncture.

This isn't a small risk.

Multiple-use vials and single-use vials have different safety profiles for multiple uses.
 
While there is a business motive behind the single-use vials, please take extra precautions. Like @King_Notes said, Zepbound vials don't have the preservative that compound and peptides have. If you're going to keep doing it, get some bac water and add it to your Zepbound vials. This will increase the liquid you draw, but it will reduce the risk.
 
I split my 10mg/.5ml vials of Zepbound until I had to increase the dose. I had no problems. I collected the overfill (about 1 unit) in another vial. I never re-refrigerated and stored it in a clean cabinet. I had no issues because nobody told me not to do it. Now that I know more, I wouldn't do it again.

I re-read the next post. The concentration/dilution is 30mg/1ml, the same as 15mg/.5.
 
(I am not OP) I multi-dosed my zepbound vials using your method, @Core-TBH. Zepbound overfills their vials, so calculate the volume before adding BAC to calculate your doses. These vials are single-use, so even with tiny insulin syringes, you risk leaving a defect in the stopper that lets contamination in.

I pulled out my dose and injected it. Then, I used a new insulin syringe, pulled out the rest of the vial, measured it, and transferred it into a sterilized, nonpyrogenic, multidose vial I bought. I added enough BAC to get the benzyl alcohol percentage to at least 0.6%. I used the 10ml vials. I used aseptic technique without a flow hood - clean hands, clean surfaces, mask and hair cover, don’t touch anything to anything, and alcohol for 30 seconds before and after the vial puncture.
 
Journalist types reading this: write about how we're reshaping health outcomes here. How many of us couldn't touch name-brand pricing? How more get harmed by old conditions than bargain generics ever will? How insurance, pharma, and some medical folk care more about margin than health?
 
Georgie2007 said:
Does Wegovy actually work at 2.4mg?
Click to expand...
I think it depends if it's suppressing your hunger...and if you're making healthy choices. I'm on a maintenance dose and still have to track calories. The med helps, but it's not magic.
 
I'm on 1.7mg of Wegovy and I'm still hungry and get sugar cravings. I'm exercising less because of the weather. It's hard to stay in a calorie deficit. My weight has been fluctuating, but I haven't lost weight this year. I'm increasing the dose, but I'm not sure if it will help. I'm trying to sit with the hunger and eat less instead.
 
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