What claims call for a pause?

A prescription medicine without a prescription

A licensed clinician called the prescriber issues the medicine order known as a prescription. Under federal rules checked on September 26, 2026, providing a prescription drug without a valid prescription is illegal.

FDA, meaning Food and Drug Administration, also lists this as a warning sign when assessing an online pharmacy.

A custom medicine described as approved

A custom preparation is a medicine produced through compounding. As of September 26, 2026, FDA described claims that it had FDA approval or matched an approved drug as false or misleading.

When an approved product cannot meet a patient’s medical need, a preparation made to order may be needed. The prescriber still has to check that the exact preparation is allowed.

Research wording beside treatment claims

As checked on September 26, 2026, FDA had warned against research-labelled GLP-1 products marketed to people for use as medicine.

GLP-1 is the hormone term used for medicines that affect appetite and blood sugar. FDA said these research-labelled products have unknown quality and may cause harm.

A label with a pharmacy you cannot trace

At the September 26, 2026 check, FDA had identified fraudulent compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide labels naming pharmacies that did not exist.

Ask for the actual pharmacy name, then look it up in the state Pharmacy Board’s licence or permit search.

• Trace the pharmacy name

A claim that an advert was cleared first

Government agencies do not clear health adverts for publication, according to the Federal Trade Commission; that guidance was checked on September 17, 2026.

Ask for the source behind a claim rather than treating its appearance in an advert as evidence.

• Ask what supports the claim