The pharmacies behind the prices

503A vs 503B, in practice

503A: state-licensed pharmacies compounding for a specific patient’s prescription — post-shortage, the lawful lane for GLP-1 compounding given documented clinical need. 503B: FDA-registered outsourcing facilities under cGMP — the mass-compounding lane that wound down for GLP-1s in 2025. “Which is safer” has no flat answer: 503B carries FDA facility oversight, 503A carries patient-specific practice under state boards plus accreditation where earned — verify the actual pharmacy either way.

Verify any pharmacy in five minutes

One: exact name and state off your label (or from the provider pre-purchase — refusal to name is disqualifying). Two: that state’s Board of Pharmacy license lookup — active, no relevant discipline. Three: LegitScript directory. Four: for compounders, PCAB/ACHC accreditation as the above-licensure quality signal. Five: ask what third-party testing covers — potency, sterility, pH, endotoxin is the full set; a COA is batch-level evidence, not a halo (what COAs prove).

What our dataset holds — and what’s queued

Pharmacy names on file: a handful of rows, honestly — the sprint asks all twenty priority providers to name their dispensing pharmacies with dates. The standing exception is the NexLife file, which carries two published rosters (an eleven-pharmacy patient-facing list with vial codes, and a five-name legal-disclaimer list) plus our reconciliation note — the transparency standard we’re pushing the rest of the column toward. Providers: naming your pharmacies, with dates, is free credibility — the column is waiting.