Find the pharmacy name behind the package.

Find the name you can check

The FDA, the US agency that regulates medicines, notes that people using online platforms may not know who compounded their medicine.

When a licensed pharmacist or doctor mixes or makes the medicine, the process is called compounding. This differs from handing out a drug company’s ready-made medicine.

Compounding also happens in larger medicine-making facilities that register with the FDA. Registration puts a facility on a list; the FDA has not thereby approved that place or the medicines it makes.

Use the pharmacy licence record

Pharmacies have a separate licensing board from doctors; the state board of pharmacy holds their records.

State pharmacy searches can be reached through the FDA’s licence-checking page.

A matching record confirms the pharmacy’s licence. It does not prove that a particular medicine from that pharmacy is safe or approved.

If the spelling or name does not match, ask the board or the pharmacy to explain it.

Know who can answer a product question

A prescription requirement and a pharmacist available for questions are among the checks on the FDA’s pharmacy page.

It also cautions that a convincing-looking website can hide an unsafe operation.

Ask how to reach the pharmacist, and whether they can explain the product label before anything is sent.