A checklist you can actually run
How to tell a real peptide provider from a storefront.
Nine checks, each with the route to verify it yourself. A legitimate provider names the prescribing clinician, names the pharmacy and its 503A or 503B category, shows a lot-specific third-party certificate of analysis, says "compounded, not FDA-approved" in plain sight, and reviews you before selling you anything. Everything else is decoration.
No email required, no quiz, nothing gated. Copy it, print it, send it to whoever needs it — including to us.
The checklist
Nine questions, and how to check the answers.
We name no companies here. Every red flag is written as a behaviour you can observe for yourself — that is more useful than an opinion about someone, and it does not go out of date when a brand changes its name.
Is there a named prescribing clinician, licensed in your state?
What to check
A first name, a last name, a credential, and the state they are licensed in. Not "our medical team", not "board-certified physicians" as a category, not a stock photo with a first name.
How to check it
Search the name in the NPI registry to confirm the individual exists and holds the credential claimed. Then search your own state's medical or nursing board — the licence has to be active in the state you are physically in when you are seen, not in the state the company is registered in.
What a bad answer looks like
"A licensed provider will review your intake." That is a description of a process, not a person. If nobody will put a name and a licence number in writing before you pay, that is the answer.
Reviewed by [name], [credential], licensed in [state], licence #[number] — verify at your state board.
Our team of US-licensed clinicians reviews every request.
The first can be checked in ninety seconds by a stranger. The second cannot be checked at all.
Is the pharmacy 503A or 503B, and licensed in the US?
What to check
Which one they use, by name, and where it is licensed. The two are different legal animals: a 503A pharmacy compounds for an individual patient against a prescription; a 503B outsourcing facility registers with the FDA and compounds in larger batches under stricter manufacturing rules.
How to check it
Read our plain-English breakdown at /503a-vs-503b first, then check the named facility against the FDA's public register of outsourcing facilities and against the state board of pharmacy where it operates.
What a bad answer looks like
"Our partner pharmacy" with no name, no state, and no category. Or a facility outside the US shipping into it — which is a different problem entirely, and not one a disclaimer fixes.
Compounded by [pharmacy name], a 503A pharmacy licensed in [state].
Made in a state-of-the-art US facility to the highest standards.
"Highest standards" is not a regulatory category. 503A and 503B are.
Will they show you a third-party certificate of analysis for the actual lot?
What to check
A COA from an independent lab, for the specific lot number in the vial you were sent — identity, purity, and sterility where the route requires it. Not a generic COA for the molecule, and not their own in-house sheet.
How to check it
Ask for the COA and the lot number before you order, and check that the lot on the paperwork matches the lot on the label when it arrives. Confirm the testing lab is a third party, not a subsidiary.
What a bad answer looks like
A single undated PDF reused for every order. "Third-party tested" as a badge with nothing behind it. Or a refusal framed as proprietary — a COA contains nothing commercially sensitive.
Here is the COA for lot [x], tested by [independent lab], dated [date].
All our products are third-party tested for purity.
A claim about all products is unfalsifiable. A COA for one lot is a document you can hold.
Do they say "compounded, not FDA-approved" out loud, or bury it?
What to check
Whether that sentence appears where you are making the decision — on the page, in the plain body copy — or only in a footer, a tooltip, or the terms you clicked past.
How to check it
Open the page for the specific molecule and read it top to bottom without expanding anything. If you have to hunt for it, it was hidden on purpose.
What a bad answer looks like
The phrase appears once, in grey, below the fold, in a smaller size than everything around it. Or the page uses "FDA-registered facility" — which describes a building, not a medicine — to give the impression of approval.
This is compounded and is not FDA-approved. Compounded medicines are prepared for an individual patient and are not evaluated by the FDA for safety, efficacy or quality.
Produced in an FDA-registered facility.
One tells you the regulatory status of the medicine. The other tells you the address is on a list.
Do they sell you a molecule before a clinician has reviewed anything?
What to check
The order of operations. Intake, clinical review, then a decision about whether anything is appropriate — in that order. Not molecule in cart, then a form.
How to check it
Try to reach checkout. If you can select a specific drug and a specific quantity and pay before any clinical review has happened, the review is decoration.
What a bad answer looks like
A product grid you can buy from directly. A "quiz" whose every path ends in the same recommendation. A clinician review that happens after payment and has apparently never once resulted in a no.
Tell us what is going on and a clinician will decide whether anything here fits — including deciding that nothing does.
Choose your peptide and complete a short health form at checkout.
If the answer can never be no, it was not a clinical decision.
Do they use "research use only" labelling on something sold for human use?
What to check
Whether the label, the vial, or the small print says research use only, not for human consumption, or for laboratory use — while the marketing, the imagery and the customer support all describe people injecting it.
How to check it
Read the label text in the product photography, and the fine print at the bottom of the page. The contradiction is usually on the same screen.
What a bad answer looks like
Any version of "we cannot advise on human use" from a seller whose entire audience is humans using it. That disclaimer exists to move legal risk onto you, and it is a signal about the seller, not about the molecule.
This is dispensed against a prescription for a named patient by a licensed pharmacy.
For research purposes only. Not for human consumption.
The second sentence is either true — in which case it is not for you — or it is a shield. Neither is a reason to buy.
Do they claim a peptide is legal or available when rulemaking has not concluded?
What to check
Whether they can tell the difference between four things: removed from a restricted category, recommended by an advisory committee, lawful to compound, and actually obtainable. Those are four separate states and they routinely disagree.
How to check it
Check the molecule on our FDA Tracker, which keeps the regulatory status and the access verdict as two separate fields, and follow the linked docket to the primary record. A favourable advisory vote is a recommendation — it starts rulemaking, it does not end it.
What a bad answer looks like
"Now legal" or "FDA cleared" after a committee vote. "Back in stock" for a molecule whose rulemaking has not concluded. Any single green light where there should be two separate signals.
The advisory committee recommended it in July 2026. That is not approval, not authorisation to compound, and not availability. Rulemaking is pending.
Newly reclassified — available now.
The first sentence is checkable against a docket. The second collapses four regulatory states into a sales line.
Are outcome claims guaranteed, superlative, or unsourced?
What to check
The verbs. Guaranteed, reverses, cures, proven, breakthrough, clinically proven, #1 — and any number without a citation attached to it.
How to check it
Pick the strongest claim on the page and try to trace it to a specific study. If the citation is missing, or it is an animal study being described as if it were a human result, you have your answer.
What a bad answer looks like
A percentage with no trial named. A mouse study reported in the language of a human outcome. A guarantee of any kind — nobody can guarantee a biological result, so the guarantee is telling you about the seller.
In one randomised human trial, average weight loss over 68 weeks was [figure] — here is the citation, and it is an average, not a promise for you.
Guaranteed results or your money back.
One is a sourced statement about a population. The other is a sales instrument dressed as confidence.
Is pricing transparent, or does it require a call?
What to check
Whether the ongoing price, not just the promotional first month, is visible before you give up an email address.
How to check it
Look for the price you will pay in month three. If the page only shows a first-month figure, or shows nothing until you book a consultation, treat the number as unknown.
What a bad answer looks like
"Plans from $X" with no ceiling. A promotional rate in large type and the renewal rate nowhere. Pricing behind a mandatory call — which exists so a person can handle your objection, not so you can be informed.
$X for the first month, then $Y ongoing. Cancel any time.
Affordable monthly plans — book a free consultation to learn more.
The first is a number you can compare. The second is a reason to get you on the phone.
Red flags
Ten observable behaviours.
Not accusations — things you can see on a page or in a reply. Any one of them is a reason to slow down. Three of them together is an answer.
- They will not put a clinician's name and licence number in writing before payment.
- The pharmacy is described only as "our partner pharmacy", with no name, state or 503A/503B category.
- The same undated certificate of analysis is used for every order, or none is offered.
- "Compounded, not FDA-approved" appears only in the footer, the terms, or a collapsed tooltip.
- You can put a specific drug and quantity in a cart and pay before any clinical review.
- The label says research use only while the marketing describes human use.
- An advisory-committee vote is described as approval, clearance, or availability.
- Outcome claims are guaranteed, superlative, or carry a number with no study named.
- The ongoing price is not visible until you book a call.
- Urgency that has nothing to do with clinical need — a countdown, a closing cohort, a last-chance price.
Where to verify
Primary sources, all free.
Every link here is a government register or docket. We do not link sellers, protocol sites or research-chemical retailers from this page — not even as examples of what to avoid.
- NPI Registry (CMS)
Confirm an individual clinician exists and holds the credential claimed. Free, no account.
- DocInfo (FSMB)
Physician licence status and disciplinary history across state medical boards.
- FDA registered outsourcing facilities
The public list of 503B facilities. If a facility claims 503B status and is not here, ask why.
- FDA warning letters
Search the company and the pharmacy name. Enforcement history is public.
- 503A Bulks List docket (FDA-2025-N-6895)
The primary record for the peptide nominations and the PCAC review. Read the committee record, not a summary of it.
- Drugs@FDA
Whether a branded product is actually approved, and for what. A compounded version of an approved drug is not itself approved.
- 503A vs 503B, explained
What the two categories actually mean, and why the difference changes what you should expect.
- The FDA Peptide Tracker
Where each molecule stands, with the regulatory status and the access verdict kept as two separate signals.
Now run it on us
A checklist that exempts its author is worthless.
- Items 4, 7 and 8 — we pass, and you can check. "Compounded, not FDA-approved" is in the body copy of every relevant page, not the footer. Our FDA Tracker keeps the regulatory status and the access verdict as two separate fields and links the primary docket for each. Our grades and their reasoning are public at /peptides/how-we-grade, and we publish what we still don't know on every monograph.
- Item 5 — we pass. Nothing on this site can be added to a cart. Consults are not open yet; every route is education or a waitlist, and no molecule is sold ahead of a clinical review because no molecule is sold at all.
- Item 1 — we do not pass yet, and here it is in public. We have not published the individual name and state licence number of a prescribing clinician. Our review standards and process are at /medical-review, and the compliance perimeter we hold partners to is at /partners/compliance — but a process is not a person, and item 1 asks for a person. That name and licence number go on the review page before anyone can buy anything from us. If you can transact here and item 1 is still unanswered, we have failed our own first check and you should hold that against us.
- Items 2, 3 and 9 — not yet applicable, and we are not going to claim them. With consults closed there is no dispensing pharmacy to name, no lot to show you a certificate for, and no ongoing price to publish. When there is, they get named, shown and published in that order. A provider claiming a pass on a check that does not yet apply to them is doing the thing this page is about.
Questions
The five that come up every time.
- Is compounded medication legal?
- Compounding by a licensed 503A pharmacy against a prescription for an individual patient, or by a registered 503B outsourcing facility, is lawful. What varies is whether a specific substance may be used in compounding at all — that is what the 503A Bulks List and the PCAC process decide. Lawful compounding is not the same as FDA approval: compounded medicines are not evaluated by the FDA for safety, efficacy or quality, and any provider worth using says so plainly.
- If a peptide was recommended by the FDA advisory committee, can I get it now?
- No. An advisory committee recommendation is advice to the FDA. It begins rulemaking; it is not approval, not authorisation to compound, and not availability. Between the vote and a concluded rule there is a period where the honest answer is "not yet", and a provider telling you otherwise is telling you something about themselves.
- What is the single fastest check?
- Ask for the prescribing clinician's full name and state licence number in writing, and look it up yourself. It takes about ninety seconds and it filters out most of what you want filtered out. If the answer is a category rather than a person, you already know.
- Is "FDA-registered facility" the same as FDA-approved?
- No, and the phrase is often used because it sounds like it. Registration means a facility has told the FDA it exists and is subject to inspection. Approval is a determination about a specific product's safety and efficacy. A registered facility can compound a medicine that has never been FDA-approved — which is the normal case in compounding, and the reason the disclosure matters.
- Does a doctor being licensed somewhere mean they can treat me?
- Not necessarily. Telehealth licensure is generally based on where the patient is physically located at the time of the visit, not where the company or the clinician is based. A clinician licensed in another state and not in yours is not licensed to treat you, however impressive the credential.
We publish a status alert when a tracked molecule's regulatory position changes — no dosing, no offers, just the dated change. Get status alerts if that is useful to you. It is not a condition of anything on this page.
Last reviewed · Reviewed by the Peptós.LIFE clinical team, whose standards are published at /medical-review · Not medical advice.