Sourcing Transparency & Legal Context
Whether the provider tells you plainly what you are actually getting — branded vs. compounded, which pharmacy, under what regulatory status — and carries a clean, dated legal record.
Why it matters
Two products with the same drug name can differ enormously in origin and oversight. A provider that hides whether a medication is FDA-approved-branded or compounded, or which pharmacy fills it, is hiding the thing that most affects authenticity and safety.
How we assess it
We check what is disclosed about the actual supply chain and any regulatory or litigation history.
- Clear disclosure of branded vs. compounded, and the named pharmacy (503A / 503B)
- Authenticity and testing claims — certificates of analysis, cold-chain for temperature-sensitive drugs
- A dated regulatory and litigation record, typed by severity
Source types: The provider’s sourcing disclosures and pharmacy naming, plus primary regulatory records — and we weight a regulatory action by its severity (a marketing/labeling letter counts far lighter than a quality, safety, or unlicensed-practice action).
How we score it
Naming the pharmacy, the product type, and standing behind authenticity scores high. Undisclosed sourcing, an unnamed pharmacy, or gray-market supply is the red flag, and a severe regulatory action (contamination, recall, fraud) pulls it down hard — while a minor industry-wide marketing letter is noted but penalized lightly.
- Importance
- High
High — a heavily weighted tier, one step below Critical. Sourcing is scored per treatment, since what is dispensed and its legal context are drug-specific.
- Scope
- Universal — applies to every provider
What this tier is worth
Not medical advice
- Scope
- Universal — applies to every provider
How this shows up in real reviews
Cited evidence we captured on this factor in live provider reviews.
- Gala Health
Gala does not name the pharmacy that fills its hormone prescriptions, and the HRT pages do not state which regulatory category the estradiol and progesterone fall into — an approved product, or a compounded preparation. Gala describes them as “bioidentical hormones”, a marketing term rather than a regulatory one, which does not settle the question either way.
- WellMedr
The fulfilment pharmacy is named — Mycelium Pharmacy — in the privacy notice, which is more than most of this category discloses. The marketing pages describe pharmacies only as "accredited" or "certified" and never name one, and no page states which regulatory category the compounding pharmacy falls under — whether it compounds against individual prescriptions or operates as a larger outsourcing facility, which are different regimes with different oversight. The compounded status of the medication itself is disclosed clearly and repeatedly.