Your package arrived and the cold pack is soft. The vial does not feel cold. You are holding a month of medication and wondering whether you just lost it.
Here is the short answer. Put it in the refrigerator now. Then read the rest, because a warm vial and a ruined vial are not the same thing, and the published stability data on these two molecules is more forgiving than most people expect.
Educational information, not a substitute for personalized medical advice. If anything below does not match what you are looking at, contact your care team before you inject.
Do this first
- Refrigerate it. As soon as possible upon arrival, at 36°F to 46°F (2°C to 8°C). Do not wait until you have finished reading.
- Look at the liquid. It should be clear and colorless, with nothing floating in it.
- Check whether it froze. Ice crystals, slush, or a vial that thawed in transit is the one finding that ends the conversation. Freezing damages these peptides in a way warmth does not.
- Note how long it sat. Your tracking page has the delivery time. If the package spent a hot afternoon in a mailbox or on a porch, that is worth telling us.
- Message or call us if any of steps 2 through 4 gave you pause. We would rather replace a vial than have you guess.
Warmth is not the failure mode people assume
The mental model most patients arrive with is that a refrigerated medication is ruined the moment it stops being cold. That is not how peptide stability works, and the manufacturers' own labels say so plainly.
Ozempic (semaglutide) is refrigerated at 2°C to 8°C before first use. After first use, the label allows the pen to be kept 56 days at controlled room temperature, 15°C to 30°C (59°F to 86°F), or in the refrigerator. Source: Ozempic prescribing information
Zepbound (tirzepatide) is refrigerated at 36°F to 46°F (2°C to 8°C), and its label allows storage at room temperature up to 86°F (30°C) for up to 21 days. Source: Zepbound prescribing information
Read those two numbers again. Weeks, not minutes. A shipping box that lost its chill somewhere over Memphis is measured in hours.
Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are not those products, and nobody should tell you the branded label transfers to a compounded vial. What the branded labels do establish is the behavior of the molecule itself: these peptides tolerate ordinary room temperature for extended periods. That is the reason a warm delivery is usually a disappointment rather than a loss.
What is actually fragile
Three things do real damage, and warmth at ordinary room temperature is not among them.
Freezing. Both labels say it in the same words: do not freeze, and do not use it if it has been frozen. Freezing and thawing a peptide solution can aggregate the protein, and the vial can look completely normal afterward. A package that arrived frozen or with ice in the cooler is the case where you stop and call, not the case where you shrug.
Heat well past room temperature. "Room temperature" in a drug label means up to about 86°F (30°C). The inside of a parked car in July is not room temperature; neither is a black metal mailbox in direct afternoon sun. Sustained heat above the labeled ceiling is outside every allowance quoted above, and it is worth telling us how long the package sat and where.
Time after the vial is opened. This is the clock most people miss. Once you puncture the stopper on a multi-dose vial, the standard in-use window is 28 days from first entry unless the manufacturer specifies otherwise, and that window is about sterility rather than potency. Source: CDC injection safety guidance for health care providers
Your compounded vial also carries a beyond-use date printed by the pharmacy that made it. That date is the sealed vial's shelf life, and it is set by the compounding pharmacy under its own testing and standards, not by Eli Lilly or Novo Nordisk. Across Temi's compounded catalog those dates range from 28 to 90 days depending on the pharmacy and formulation. When the two clocks disagree, the earlier one wins.
Why compounded is a different question
A compounded drug is prepared for one patient by a 503A pharmacy after it receives a prescription. It does not go through FDA review for safety, effectiveness, or quality before it is sold, and the FDA's position is that compounded drugs are for patients whose medical needs cannot be met by an FDA-approved product. Source: FDA's Concerns with Unapproved GLP-1 Drugs Used for Weight Loss
Practically, that means there is no single published stability dataset covering "compounded semaglutide." Each pharmacy sets its own formulation, its own concentration, its own beyond-use dating, and its own storage instruction. Every compounded GLP-1 vial Temi's partner pharmacies dispense is labeled store refrigerated, and that instruction is the one that governs your vial.
So the honest framing is two-sided. The molecule tolerates warmth far better than the panic suggests. The specific vial in your hand is governed by a pharmacy's own labeling, and neither you nor we can substitute a branded label's 21 days for it. That is why the answer to a warm delivery is refrigerate now and tell us, rather than either "it is fine" or "throw it out."
Do not use it if
- It was frozen, or arrived with ice crystals or slush in the vial.
- The solution is cloudy, discolored, or has visible particles.
- The vial is cracked, leaking, or the stopper is not intact.
- The beyond-use date on the pharmacy label has passed.
- It has been more than 28 days since you first punctured the stopper.
In any of those cases, do not inject it. Contact us and we will work it out with the pharmacy.
What Temi does about it
We ship compounded GLP-1 orders on overnight or two-day refrigerated service with a cold pack, and we track every package from the moment the pharmacy hands it to the carrier. When a delivery is late, held, or returned, that shows up on our side as work for a person, not as a status nobody reads.
If your package arrived warm, message us in the app or text (855) 554-3030. We are available 24 hours a day. Tell us the delivery time and where the package was sitting, and we will tell you what we can, replace what needs replacing, and refund anything you are not satisfied with.
FAQ
My cold pack was completely melted. Is the medication ruined?
Almost certainly not, on its own. A gel pack is designed to buy hours, and it melting means the shipment ended warm rather than that the medication failed. Refrigerate the vial and look at the solution. The findings that matter are freezing, cloudiness, particles, and a damaged vial.
How long can compounded semaglutide sit out?
There is no published number for "compounded semaglutide" as a category, because each pharmacy's formulation is its own product with its own beyond-use dating. What is published is that the branded semaglutide and tirzepatide products tolerate weeks at room temperature. Your vial's own label says store refrigerated, so treat any time out of the fridge as time you should tell us about rather than time you should budget.
It sat in the mailbox all day in summer. Same answer?
No. Sustained heat above about 86°F (30°C) is outside every storage allowance in this article. Refrigerate it, do not inject it yet, and contact us with the delivery time and where it sat.
Can I put it back in the refrigerator after it warmed up?
Refrigerate it. That is what the pharmacy's own storage instruction on your vial says, and it is what we tell every patient. Some branded labels restrict moving a product back and forth between room temperature and the refrigerator; those restrictions belong to those products, not to your compounded vial.
Does a warm vial hurt less or more?
Neither, in the sense you mean. Injection comfort is a separate question from stability. Many patients find a vial straight out of the refrigerator stings more, which is why some let the drawn syringe sit for a few minutes at room temperature before injecting. That is comfort, not storage.
Key takeaways
- Refrigerate as soon as possible upon arrival. That is the instruction on your vial and the first thing to do.
- Warmth is usually not the failure. The branded labels allow 56 days at room temperature for Ozempic and up to 21 days for Zepbound. A warm shipping box is hours.
- Freezing is the failure. Both labels say do not use a product that has been frozen, and a frozen vial can look normal.
- Two clocks run on your vial: the pharmacy's beyond-use date on the sealed vial, and 28 days from the first puncture. The earlier one wins.
- Compounded is its own product. No branded label transfers to it, which is why the answer is refrigerate and ask rather than a number you can look up.
- Tell us. A replacement is cheaper than a bad dose, and we would rather send one.
Sources
- Novo Nordisk. Ozempic (semaglutide) injection prescribing information. DailyMed
- Eli Lilly and Company. Zepbound (tirzepatide) injection prescribing information. DailyMed
- Novo Nordisk. Wegovy (semaglutide) injection prescribing information. DailyMed
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Injection safety: clinical safety considerations for health care providers. Link
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA's Concerns with Unapproved GLP-1 Drugs Used for Weight Loss. Link
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Pharmacy Compounding of Human Drug Products Under Section 503A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act: Guidance. PDF
- Temi. What is in a compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide vial.
- Temi. How Temi works.
Temi is making access to healthcare more seamless. Package arrived warm and you want a human to look at it? Your Temi care team is here 24/7. usetemi.com