[Go to the reading](#read)

[Recovery, in plain words](/)

A handbook for choosing care Plain words: on

[What is it?](/start/)

[Is it real?](/approval/)

[How do I find care?](/care/)

[What will I pay?](/cost/)

[What needs checking?](/safety/)

Check the product record

# Does the treatment have approval?

Ask which product is in the plan. Then ask to see its approval decision. “Listed” means a product appears in a drug directory. “Registered” means a business has given the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) its details. Neither means approval. Approval means FDA has reviewed the medicine and found it safe enough and effective for its stated use.

## Questions to work through

Ask about the named substance.

For retatrutide, BPC-157 and ipamorelin, no product had FDA approval in the US on September 26, 2026.

The absence of an approved product does not, by itself, answer the separate question of compounding.

Keep a listing code in its place.

Food and Drug Administration is the agency’s name, shortened to FDA.

A product listed in the National Drug Code directory has an identifying number, called an NDC.

FDA’s position recorded September 26, 2026 is that a product’s NDC number does not establish its approval.

Read “registered” carefully.

A business can give FDA its details without receiving approval for itself or any of its medicines; US rules recorded September 26, 2026 make that distinction.

## What about a promised injury benefit?

A product’s approval status alone cannot tell you how much faster an injury might heal. Ask for a human study result that addresses the promised change.

Ask for evidence from people who had your problem and received the same medicine in the same way, for example, by injection or as a tablet. Ask what remains unknown.

## Ask to see the record

Ask the person prescribing to show FDA’s approval decision for the medicine and explain which uses it covers.

Keep this thought

A medicine can appear in a drug directory without having FDA approval. Keep the approval question separate from the benefit question.

## Notes for this question

### [FDA: decisions on medicine approval](https://api.fda.gov/drug/drugsfda.json)

These approval records were searched on September 26, 2026 for the substances named above.

### [FDA: what a listing code means](https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-approvals-and-databases/national-drug-code-directory)

Explains why a listing number does not mean a medicine has approval.

### [Federal rule: registration](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/section-207.77)

The registration rule separates listing from approval.

[What is compounding?](/compounding/)  [What does research-only mean?](/research/)  [How can I read the evidence?](/sources/)

Words, unpacked

NDC

A code used in a drug product directory.

Product approval

A review decision about a particular medicine.

[Is it approved?](/approval/) [What is compounding?](/compounding/) [What does research-only mean?](/research/) [How can I read the evidence?](/sources/)

[Read this page as text](/approval/index.md)

This is a guide for questioning care offers, never a clinic or a place that supplies medicine.

[Begin here](/)  [What can I ask?](/questions/)  [How can I read the evidence?](/sources/)

[Back to the beginning of this page](#top)