Before the visit · test the claims
What deserves a pause
A polished page can still leave the important parts fuzzy. Open a question below and compare the answer with what an offer is actually saying.
A badge cannot answer everything
The Federal Trade Commission, abbreviated FTC, protects US consumers and warns that seals and logos on health websites may be faked.
Ask for records behind a badge. Keep the drug, clinician, and pharmacy names in view while you check.
The US drug regulator is called the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA for short.
What does FDA registered tell me?
As of September 2026, registering a business or listing a drug with the FDA does not give that drug approval.
Ask for evidence of product approval if that is the claim being made.
Can a research label stand in for a prescription?
Dispensing a prescription drug requires a prescription issued by a licensed practitioner under federal law, as of September 2026.
The FDA's guidance checked in September 2026 urges people to avoid weight drugs sold for human use with research labels. A label might state not for human consumption, which means people must not use the drug, or it might state for research purposes.
In the agency's account, the quality of these drugs is unknown and they could harm health.
Does adding a vitamin solve the copy rule?
Compounding means making a drug to order; essentially a copy means a made-to-order version that closely matches an available product.
Including a vitamin does not necessarily take a made-to-order drug outside the rules for copies of available medicines, according to FDA guidance as of September 2026.
Under the September 2026 rules, the prescriber must record why a change to the medicine makes enough medical difference for one named patient to fall outside the copy rule.
Ask: What change would meet my medical needs, and why does it matter for me? Can I see the prescriber's written reason? Adding a vitamin alone does not answer those questions.
Does choosing from a drug menu count as care?
Letting patients select a drug from a list without a health assessment fails the standard for proper care, says the group representing state medical boards in guidance checked in September 2026.
The boards' group gives advice; each state's law sets the rules a clinician must obey.
Ask how the clinician assesses your needs and how you can ask more questions.
A pharmacy name needs to lead somewhere real
By September 2026, FDA findings included fraudulent compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide whose labels gave the names of nonexistent pharmacies.
The ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy is semaglutide; Mounjaro and Zepbound contain tirzepatide.
Look up the pharmacy name rather than relying on the label's appearance.
Follow the pharmacy name to a recordPayment demands can be a tell
The FTC's July 2026 advice flags demands for payment only by bank or wire transfer, payment apps, gift cards, or digital currency, a kind of online money.
Keep payment questions alongside the name and product checks. A rushed answer does not close an open question.
Sources for this page
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