Know the pharmacy behind the parcel.

Identify the maker and the sender

FDA, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, says people getting compounded medicines online may not know which compounder made them.

The term compounder names whoever prepares the medicine to order, whether a pharmacy, a doctor or a facility.

Ask for the dispensing pharmacy, which is the pharmacy that fills the prescription.

If a different business makes the medicine, ask for that name too.

Use the state record to check the name

A state board of pharmacy is the body that licenses pharmacies.

Reach the state’s pharmacy licensing records through the links on FDA’s lookup page.

That FDA guidance advises against using a pharmacy missing from your state’s licence database.

A pharmacy’s record establishes that it is licensed. It cannot answer whether that medicine suits your care.

In most states, a pharmacy based elsewhere also needed a licence or permit before shipping to a patient there, under September 2026 rules.

Ask about both the pharmacy’s location and the place the medicine will be sent.

Two of FDA’s online-pharmacy checks are that prescriptions must be valid and a pharmacist holding a licence must be reachable for questions.

It also warns that a convincing storefront can be fake.

Registration and approval are different checks

FDA registration means a medicine-making business is recorded with the agency; drug listing means a product is entered in its records.

Neither record meant FDA had approved the business or the medicine under the September 2026 rules.

FDA’s drug directory uses an identifying product number called the National Drug Code (NDC). Having that number did not confer FDA approval, as of September 2026.

Ask what any badge actually checks and which record supports it.