The questions people ask us first

Yes. Medicine like this is prescription-only, and we don’t prescribe. We make what a licensed doctor sends us. If you don’t have a prescription yet, call us and we’ll tell you what to bring up at your appointment, or we’ll send your doctor our list of formulas directly.

Usually, yes. Tell us which pharmacy and what they make for you, and we’ll ask them to transfer it. Sometimes they can’t, because the recipe belongs to them. In that case we ask your doctor to send us a new prescription, which is normally sorted the same day.

Each ingredient and how strong it should be, what it’s mixed into, the form it should take, how much to make, and how you should use it. Most doctors start from our list of formulas and adjust it. The full details are on the prescribers page, which is the page to forward if they’ve not compounded with us before.

No, and no compounded medicine is. Because each one is made for a single patient, the FDA doesn’t review it for safety or effectiveness the way it reviews mass-produced drugs. Your doctor orders one when the off-the-shelf version isn’t right for you: a strength nobody sells, a combination that doesn’t exist, a form you can actually swallow, or a version without an ingredient you react to.

Not as long as a store-bought medicine. Instead of an expiration date, yours has a “beyond-use date” printed on the label next to the day we made it: the last day it’s safe to use. How you store it matters more than usual, and a pharmacist will explain exactly what to do. There’s more detail in beyond-use dating.

Follow the label. Those instructions are written for your medicine, not general advice. Some need the fridge, some need to stay out of the light, and almost none of them like a steamy bathroom cabinet. If yours has been left somewhere it shouldn’t have been, call us before you use it.

No. We charge a cash price per prescription and show you the number before you commit. Most compounded prescriptions aren’t covered anyway, and going through an insurance plan is what creates the approval delays and the markups in the first place. The reasoning is set out on the pricing page.

Usually, yes. A compounded prescription normally counts as an eligible FSA or HSA expense. Ask us for an itemised receipt showing what we made, the date and the amount. That’s also the receipt you’d send your insurer if your plan pays you back for out-of-network pharmacies. We can’t promise how your plan will treat it.

Normally it stays the same. The price only changes if your doctor changes the prescription or if an ingredient gets more expensive, and if that happens we tell you before we make it.

Most prescriptions are made within one business day of reaching us, then shipped two-day. If you’re nearby, you can pick yours up at our Chevy Chase counter the same day we make it. A few take longer to make, and we’ll tell you if yours is one of them when we give you the price.

Anywhere we’re licensed. Pharmacy licenses work state by state, so the honest answer depends on where you live and where your doctor practices. Call us and we’ll check in a minute.

We keep everything we’ve made for you on file, exactly as it was mixed. So a refill is the same medicine, at the same price, on the same timeline. If your doctor changes the prescription, we make the new version on the same account and show you the price up front.

If it’s severe, or you’re having trouble breathing, treat it as an emergency and call 911. Otherwise call us on (301) 690-6880. A pharmacist will go through your prescription with you, tell you whether to stop taking it, and report it to the authorities where that’s required. See reporting an adverse event.

Don’t use it. Call us. If we got something wrong, or it was damaged on the way to you, we’ll make it again and ship it at no cost to you. The full terms are on the shipping and returns page.