Mounjaro Shortage: Current Status, Pen Strengths Affected

Mounjaro in brief

How long it stays in your body

Its half-life is about 5 days: after 5 d half is gone, and after five half-lives (25 d) about 3% is left.

Weight loss in its main trial

In SURPASS-1, a 40-week study of type 2 diabetes, 7.8 kg was lost against 1 kg on placebo.

Price as time goes by

Monthly prices in US dollars: the list price and self-pay offers, each taken from the maker's price page.

Sources: FDA label (DailyMed), healthsystemtracker.org, pricinginfo.lilly.com.

All legitimate routes to Mounjaro, ranked

Ways to get it, cheapest first
Route	Who it is for	What you pay
Your doctor, with insurance and the savings card	Commercial insurance that covers it	A fill of up to 3 months can cost as little as $25
Telehealth: Hims & Hers, Mounjaro	Online visit, medicine shipped	$2,048 a month all in

Prices checked November 2026. Each listed price links to the page that shows it.

Sources: pricinginfo.lilly.com, mounjaro.lilly.com, GoodRx, FDA.

Who qualifies for it

Every GLP-1 medicine sold in the US needs a prescription. Approved uses appear on the label, and for one of them a prescriber writes it:

Taken with diet and exercise, the medicine lowers blood sugar in adults and children 10 and older with type 2 diabetes.
For adults with type 2 diabetes at high risk, the risk of heart attack, stroke, or heart-related death drops.

Required: FDA DailyMed label

Comparing telehealth options

Telehealth programs for Mounjaro
Program	Medicine option	Medicine price	Membership	All in
Hims & Hers	Mounjaro	$1,899 a month	$149 a month after first month	$2,048 a month

These Prices come from each program's own pricing page. None of them earns money for us.

Source: hims.com.

Shortage status

Tirzepatide: the shortage is over. FDA confirmed it on December 19, 2024.

First added to the FDA shortage list: December 15, 2022
Shortage resolved: December 19, 2024
State pharmacies had to stop making compounded copies: February 18, 2025
Outsourcing facilities had to stop: March 19, 2025

Source: FDA.

Scam signals

Prescription not required: no seller that skips it can be a pharmacy licensed in the US.
Compounded drugs are not FDA approved, even when sold as the brand. So they are not Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro nor Zepbound.
Over misleading claims of matching the brand, FDA sent out 30 warning letters to telehealth companies.
Reports of harm: more than 730 adverse event reports about compounded tirzepatide are in FDA's log.
A monthly price that omits the drug: one program faced FTC action over this; see the NextMed review.

Sources: pricinginfo.lilly.com, mounjaro.lilly.com, GoodRx, FDA.

Find it in your state

Hims & Hers: Serves fewer than 50 states
Noom Med: Serves fewer than 50 states
NovoCare Pharmacy: Delivery network covers all 50 states plus DC, Puerto Rico

The route changes most under Medicaid rules. now 10 state Medicaid programs cover GLP-1s for weight loss. Select a state to view its drug list and the prior authorization rules that apply:

Sources: hims.com, noom.com, NovoCare.