Check official records, not a seal on a sales page
Each record answers one kind of question. A licence is not a registration. Neither one is a drug approval.
Doctor or nurse: use the Illinois record
The state licence search includes doctors, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and pharmacies. Enter the person’s full name. Then choose the licence type.
Search Illinois licences
Pharmacy: check the name from the label
As of September 2026, every pharmacy doing business in Illinois must have a state licence. A pharmacy outside Illinois needs an Illinois nonresident licence before it sends prescription medicine to an Illinois resident.
To check a pharmacy by name, use the same Illinois licence search shown above. If the pharmacy is in another state, this FDA page links to that state’s own pharmacy lookup.
Find other states’ pharmacy lookupsProduct: look for the approval record
“FDA registered” does not mean “FDA approved.” Under federal rules, signing a factory up with the FDA (registration) or putting a drug on its list (listing) does not mean the FDA approved either one. It also does not mean a product can be sold legally.
An NDC number (National Drug Code) is just an ID number for a product on an FDA list, not a seal of approval. FDA says using that number to imply approval is misleading.
What a search result can and cannot tell you
- A licence result tells you whether a licence exists. It does not say a treatment fits a person.
- An FDA approval covers one maker’s product for the uses named in it. It does not approve every product with the same ingredient name, so compare the brand name and maker on your box with the name in the record.
- A warning letter describes one point in time. Later events may change the status.