Guide
How to Check a GLP-1 Provider Yourself, in About Ten Minutes
Six checks you can complete against public databases: the pharmacy licence, the prescriber licence, the FDA warning-letter database, the maintenance-dose price in writing
Six checks you can complete against public databases: the pharmacy licence, the prescriber licence, the FDA warning-letter database, the maintenance-dose price in writing, the refund terms, and the salt form. Each takes about ninety seconds. None of them requires trusting a publisher, including this one.
Why you should not outsource this, including to us
Almost every site in this category publishes a scam checker. Ours is this page, and the first thing it should tell you is the structural problem with all of them.
A scam checker written by a publisher that earns commission on provider signups has to draw a line, and the line has to fall between the providers it does not earn from and the ones it does. That is not an accusation of dishonesty. It is a description of where the pressure sits, and it applies to us as much as to anyone.
We take no payment from any provider and carry no affiliate links, which removes the pressure but does not remove the reason to check for yourself. So this page is a set of lookups, not a verdict.
A widely circulated GLP-1 scam checker lists this among its red flags:
“Too-Good-to-Be-True Pricing: Semaglutide for $99/month or less with no medical consultation. Legitimate compounded semaglutide costs $150–400/month... If it seems too cheap, it is.”
The same page carries a live price ticker showing Embody at $69 a month and another provider at $99. The publisher's own machine-readable summary lists Embody as its cheapest verified provider, rated 9.0 out of 10, at $69.
The price the page defines as a warning sign appears twice on the same screen as a rated recommendation. We do not think anyone sat down and decided to do that. It is what happens when the safety content and the revenue content are produced by the same operation and neither checks the other.
Which is the argument for doing the lookups yourself.
The six checks
1. The pharmacy licence — about 90 seconds
Ask which pharmacy fills the prescription. Not “our network” — the facility name. Then look it up on the state board of pharmacy website for the state it operates in. Every US state publishes a licensee database and every one is free.
If the provider will not name the pharmacy, you have your answer and the check ends here. Our disclosure register records that one provider of 29 in our dataset names its fulfilment partners.
2. The registration class — 30 seconds
Ask whether it is a 503A state-licensed pharmacy or a 503B FDA-registered outsourcing facility. A company can use both for different products.
This decides your exposure to a live regulatory question: the FDA proposed on 30 April 2026 to exclude semaglutide, tirzepatide and liraglutide from the 503B bulks list. Section 503A is a separate pathway not addressed by that proposal.
3. The FDA warning-letter database — two minutes
Search the provider name. Then search the parent company separately: telehealth brands often trade under a different legal entity, and searching only the brand produces a false clear. Then search the pharmacy, if you have its name.
Read the result carefully in both directions. A warning letter here overwhelmingly concerns advertising rather than what is dispensed — and an absence of findings is weak evidence, because the FDA samples rather than reviewing every site. Our enforcement page sets out the three waves and what each cited.
4. The maintenance-dose price, in writing — one email
Ask: what will I pay per month at 10 mg, on the plan I would sign?
The label directs increases every four weeks to a maintenance dose over roughly 20 to 24 weeks, and states 2.5 mg is treatment initiation and is not approved as a maintenance dosage. A programme that answers with one number has a flat rate. One that answers with a range has a ladder, and the range is your real cost.
Get it in writing. A chat transcript or an email is evidence; a figure on a landing page is a marketing asset.
5. The refund position — one email
Ask what is refunded if you stop mid-term, and separately what happens to a prepaid balance if supply is interrupted. The second question is live while the 503B proposal is unresolved and almost nobody addresses it.
Prepaid terms carry the lowest advertised rates and commit you before the period in which discontinuation usually happens: 4.3% to 7.1% of SURMOUNT-1 participants stopped for adverse events, during titration.
6. The salt form, for compounded semaglutide — 30 seconds
Ask for the exact salt form and concentration. Semaglutide sodium and semaglutide acetate are not the same active ingredient as the semaglutide base in approved products, and the FDA has said they are not appropriate for compounding.
This has no tirzepatide equivalent, so it applies only to compounded semaglutide.
What a low price does and does not tell you
The scam-checker convention is that a low price is itself a warning sign. We disagree, and the disagreement is worth stating precisely.
A low price is not evidence of anything on its own. What matters is what the price is attached to. In our experience checking figures in this market, a headline below $150 is usually one of four structures, and all four are legal:
- An annual prepayment billed up front.
- A medication-only figure with a mandatory membership on top.
- A starting dose on a programme that escalates.
- A first-month promotion against a higher ongoing rate.
None of those is a scam. All of them mean the advertised number is not what you will pay in month six, which is a different problem and the one you can actually act on.
Meanwhile the approved oral semaglutide tablet is $149 a month and Foundayo is $149. A rule that treats anything under $150 as suspect now flags two FDA-approved products.
What we cannot check for you
Whether a specific vial contains what its label says. Whether a prescriber genuinely read your intake. Whether a pharmacy's sterility practice on the day your batch was made met USP <797>.
Nobody publishing a comparison site can check those, and a site that implies otherwise is overstating what a desk review can establish. What we can do is record which providers answer the questions above, and publish that as a matrix rather than as a verdict.
| Step | What the label says | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Starting dosage | 2.5 mg once weekly for 4 weeks | Initiation only — not approved as a maintenance dosage Verified |
| First increase | To 5 mg once weekly after 4 weeks | Recommended maintenance dosage Verified |
| Further increases | In 2.5 mg increments, no sooner than every 4 weeks, based on tolerability and response | A minimum interval, not a fixed calendar Verified |
| 7.5 mg and 12.5 mg | Available strengths used during titration | Titration steps, not recommended maintenance dosages Verified |
| 10 mg | Once weekly | Recommended maintenance dosage Verified |
| 15 mg | Once weekly | Recommended maintenance dosage and the maximum Verified |
| Above 15 mg | No approved dosage exists | Verified Verified |
| Program type | What it covers | Comparable with |
|---|---|---|
| Starter program | Introductory period, often lower doses | Other starter programs only |
| Ongoing program | Standard continuing supply | Other ongoing programs only |
| Maintenance program | Post-titration supply, often a fixed dose | Other maintenance programs only |
| Prepaid term | Several months paid upfront | Monthly plans only after conversion |
| Month-to-month | Cancellable each cycle | Other month-to-month plans only |
| Microdose program | Sub-therapeutic dosing outside trial evidence | Other microdose programs only |
Questions readers actually ask
How do I know if a GLP-1 provider is legitimate?
Six checks against public databases: the pharmacy licence with its state board, the registration class, the FDA warning-letter database for both brand and parent company, the maintenance-dose price in writing, the refund terms, and the salt form for compounded semaglutide.
Is cheap semaglutide a scam?
Not on its own. A headline below $150 is usually an annual prepayment, a medication-only price with a separate membership, a starting dose, or a first-month promotion. All are legal. The approved oral semaglutide tablet is $149, so a rule treating anything under $150 as suspect flags approved products.
Can I trust a scam checker on a comparison site?
Treat it carefully. A checker written by a publisher earning commission on signups has to draw a line between providers it does not earn from and ones it does. One widely circulated checker lists $99 semaglutide as a red flag while displaying a rated 9.0/10 provider at $69 on the same page.
What can a comparison site not verify?
Whether a vial contains what its label says, whether a prescriber read your intake, or whether sterility practice met USP 797 on the day your batch was made. No desk review establishes those.
Related on this site
- Provider ranking methodologyCore & Trust
- GLP-1 total cost calculatorTools
- Download the pricing recordsData
- Compounding Pharmacy Verification ToolTools
- Compounding Pharmacy Verification CenterPharmacies
- Compounding Pharmacy Recalls and Warning LettersPharmacies
- Cold-Chain Shipping for Compounded GLP-1sPharmacies
- 503B Outsourcing Facility DirectoryPharmacies
- 503A vs 503B: A Patient Verification ChecklistJournal
- 503A vs 503B CompoundingComparisons
Related coverage
Tirzepatide Provider Comparison. “How to Check a GLP-1 Provider Yourself, in About Ten Minutes.” S.J Partners LLC, 2026-07-26. https://tirzepatideprovidercomparison.com/check-a-provider/
Quote the capture date beside a figure, not the date you read this page. Why.
Capture standing: 35 of 86 price records in this dataset were read at the source by us: 24 from NexLife and 6 from Lilly's own pages for brand Zepbound. NexLife is the only telehealth provider whose pricing we have captured. Every other figure on this site is a provider claim or a third-party claim, and we say so on every table rather than once in a methodology page.