Care chapter
Find out who makes the medicine
First get the full name of the pharmacy; check its authority and the medicine as separate steps.
The service name may not name the maker
FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, says an online service may leave the name of the drug’s maker unclear.
A compound is medicine made to order. Ask who makes it and which pharmacy sends it.
A business check versus a product check
Business authority
As of October 2026, sending medicine to Arizona from an out-of-state pharmacy requires an Arizona permit.
It also needs a valid permit or its equivalent where it is based.
Check the pharmacist’s license and the pharmacy’s permit as separate records.
Product status
FDA registration means a medicine-making site has listed itself with FDA. Under the September 2026 rules, that listing is not approval of the site or its medicines.
A permit alone does not show that every custom drug meets state and federal rules.
Made to order still has limits
Federal rules bar a pharmacist or doctor from making drug copies often or in excessive amounts, as of September 2026.
This limit concerns medicines that are essentially copies of drugs already available on the market.
An exception concerns a change to the medicine for one named patient. Compared with the medicine already sold, the prescriber must find an important difference for that person from the change.
A personal need for a made-to-order medicine might be avoiding a dye that the patient is allergic to.
Ask what change meets your own need and why the prescriber says it meets the copy rule.
A price reduction by itself cannot satisfy this test.
FDA’s national shortage list includes neither semaglutide nor tirzepatide as of September 2026.
A pharmacy cannot point to a national shortage of these medicines to explain making a copy. The limits on copies still need to be checked.
Under FDA’s policy, adding a vitamin to a semaglutide injection does not necessarily keep it from counting as a copy.
A check that needs a human answer
Arizona has a Pharmacy Board for pharmacist licensing and pharmacy permits.
Ask the board to confirm a permit if the record is unclear. Ask the pharmacist who supplies your medicine to explain the label and storage instructions.