Irvine / Reader questions
Pause when the offer outruns the care.
Look for claims you can check. Keep the advert, label and payment terms together while you ask questions.
A prescription belongs in the process.
The US medicine regulator is FDA, short for Food and Drug Administration.
A pharmacy breaks federal law if it supplies prescription medicine without a valid prescription.
Ask who did the assessment and which pharmacy will fill the prescription. Keep the reply.
Read past the listing number.
A National Drug Code is a product listing number, not proof of FDA approval.
Compounded means made to order: a pharmacist or doctor prepares or mixes the medicine.
FDA guidance flags adverts that describe a compounded drug as the same as an approved product or call the made-to-order medicine FDA-approved.
- Ask for the exact product name.
- Ask which approval record the claim refers to.
- Keep the advert if its answer differs from the record.
Get the handling instructions for this product.
The active ingredient is the part intended to have the medicine’s effect.
Errors during compounding can introduce germs; the amount of the active ingredient can also end up wrong.
Storage depends on the particular medicine; a rule to refrigerate every peptide would be wrong.
- How is this exact product stored?
- Who handles a damaged delivery or an unclear label?
- Who answers questions after the medicine arrives?
Keep a record of a medicine problem.
Patients can send a suspected medicine problem to the FDA through MedWatch, its reporting programme.
Sending a report tells the regulator about a possible problem; it does not show the medicine caused it.