Never run out: a GLP-1 supply system that survives shortages
The most preventable missed dose isn’t the forgotten one — it’s the one where you remembered perfectly and the pen was empty. Supply gaps have been a defining frustration of the GLP-1 era, between shortages, insurance re-authorizations, and pharmacies that “should have it Thursday.”
Why supply fails silently
A medication supply has a failure mode that reminders don’t catch: it degrades invisibly. Each shot quietly consumes inventory, and nothing announces “two doses left” — until you’re holding the last pen on a Sunday with a Tuesday shot day. Add the modern complications:
- Refills aren’t instant. Prior authorizations, stock checks and transfers add days, sometimes weeks.
- Titration changes the math. A step-up can mean a new strength of pen — your existing stock may not apply.
- Compounded supplies expire. Vials carry beyond-use dates that don’t care how many doses are left.
The buffer rule
Borrow a rule from engineering: alert at the point where action still has slack. For a weekly medication with a realistic refill latency of 1–2 weeks, that means flagging at two doses remaining, not one. The day you open your last-but-one pen is the day you call the pharmacy — calmly, with two full weeks of runway.
The system, concretely
- Count at intake, not at need. When you pick up a refill, record exactly what entered the house: pens and doses-per-pen, or vials with their beyond-use dates.
- Decrement automatically. Every logged shot should subtract from inventory without a second thought. Manual stock-keeping dies within a month.
- Two alarms. One at two doses remaining (“start the refill”), one at expiry-minus-a-week for anything dated.
- Stale-supply check. If a shot gets skipped, inventory doesn’t move — but expiry dates keep walking. Expiry tracking has to be independent of usage.
Where this lives
You can run this on a sticky note and a calendar — genuinely, it works until the week it doesn’t. ShotLock’s supply tracker folds the whole system into the logging you already do: pens and vials counted down with each logged shot, expiry warnings, and a heads-up before you run low, timed so the pharmacy dance can finish before your buffer does. Combined with shot protection, both halves of the missed-dose problem — forgetting and running dry — get structural fixes.
The shot you take next month was secured by the refill call you make this week.