From prescription to pharmacy
Know who fills the prescription.
For a pharmacy-made medicine, ask who actually prepares it and who sends it. Get the exact name of the pharmacy filling your prescription before paying.
The name
Check the pharmacy in your state’s records
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. medicines regulator, links to state pharmacy licence searches.
As of September 2026, most states required permission for pharmacies based in another state. That permission had to come from the patient’s state before medicine could be shipped there.
Use the pharmacy’s own name in that search. Match it to the details given by the service.
Open the pharmacy licence searchFDA recommends avoiding an online pharmacy unless it appears in the state’s licence records.
Finding a licence confirms that the pharmacy has a licence. You still need to check the prescription, the medicine, and the delivery.
Use the questions below to make those checks.
Questions
Find the pharmacist who can explain the label
For online pharmacies, FDA’s checklist calls for a valid prescription and a licensed pharmacist who is available to answer questions.
Ask how to reach the pharmacist. Keep that route with the instructions you receive.
Who can explain the label if something is unclear?
Approval
Being on an FDA register is not drug approval
FDA registration means a place making medicines is recorded with the agency. Under federal rules checked in September 2026, that record did not give the place or its medicines FDA approval.
Ask about the exact medicine as well as the pharmacy’s licence. A word like “registered” needs an explanation of what was registered and with whom.
The delivery
Check an unclear label or a warm shipment
FDA information checked in September 2026 described misleading pharmacy names on pharmacy-made product packaging. Some named pharmacies did not exist; others had not prepared the product.
If the pharmacy name, label, or delivery is unclear, contact the pharmacist before use.
For these appetite and blood-sugar injections, FDA advises against use if they arrive warm or have not been kept cold enough.
Storage instructions depend on the exact product.
Read FDA’s product concernsA clear pharmacy answer belongs beside a clear total price.