Federal fact file dated September 26, 2026.
Ask which product the evidence actually tested
Ask what was tested: which medicine, how it was given and what it was meant to treat. A broad promise can leave all of that unclear.
Keep the evidence tied to the claim
Bring the claim back to the product
Ask the person assessing you which study or other evidence they rely on. Check the medicine’s name, how it was given and what it was meant to treat against your own offer.
If the answer is a study, ask what happened to the people in it and what was compared. Ask what the result leaves unanswered.
- Was the treatment studied in people?
- Does the paper test the preparation proposed here?
- What was measured, and would it matter to my goal?
- What remains unknown?
Ask about the finished medicine, as well as its ingredients
FDA refers to the U.S. medicines regulator, the Food and Drug Administration.
With compounding, a doctor or pharmacy prepares the finished medicine to order.
A compounded preparation has not had FDA’s pre-sale check of its quality, safety or effectiveness.
Read the FDA account of what has not been reviewed
Effectiveness means whether a treatment works for the use in question.
Ask the person proposing treatment to show which evidence concerns an approved product and which concerns the medicine being prepared for you.
A report of a problem is also limited evidence
A report to FDA’s public system cannot, on its own, show that a drug caused the reported problem.
Read the FDA dashboard’s limits on interpretation
An adverse event is something unwanted that occurred while a person was using a medical product.
The reports also cannot be used to calculate how often a problem occurs.
Ask what the number tells you. Is it just how many reports arrived, or can the study tell how often the problem happened among the people taking the medicine? Ask what was counted and what remains unknown.