In late 2022, pharmacist Joseph Lambson got an unusual call from a poison control specialist.
He said, “Hey Joe, I’m getting these weird calls about semaglutide.” According to the specialist’s calculations, people were giving themselves 10 times the correct dose. But that didn’t make sense. The drug is the key ingredient in the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss medications Ozempic and Wegovy. Both come in prefilled injector pens, which typically take the guesswork out of dosing.
Lambson, a board-certified toxicologist, knew right away what was going on. “This drug is probably being compounded,” he remembers thinking. He was right. After investigating, Lambson’s team at the Utah Poison Control Center in