Reference

Glossary of terms used on this site

Every specialized term this site uses, defined in plain English — including exactly what each evidence badge does and does not claim. Definitions describe how the terms are used here; regulatory entries point to the controlling authority and are not legal advice.

Data current as of 2026-07-24By Editorial research desk

Evidence-status badges

Verified by GLP Ranked: The strongest label on this site — and currently unused. It requires that a named reviewer on this publication opened the claim's own source, reproduced the exact claim, and captured an archived copy whose checksum is stored with the record. No claim carries this badge yet; the gate that enforces that is described in the pricing verification methodology.
Primary source linked: The claim links to an authoritative primary source — a peer-reviewed trial publication, a trial registry entry, an FDA label, or a federal-agency record. We have not independently reproduced the claim, and primary sources can themselves be corrected or updated.
Provider reported: The claim comes from a page the provider itself controls (its own website or published price list). It is citable but mutable, and it has not been independently checked by us. A provider's statement about its own pricing is inherently promotional context.
Third-party reported: Someone other than the provider reported the claim — trade press, a dataset, a competitor — or the source URL could not be deterministically attributed to the provider's own domain. Treat with more caution than provider-reported.
Unverified — no source on file: We hold no source URL for this claim at all. It is displayed only so you can see what exists in the dataset; it should not be relied on.
Not publicly disclosed: We looked for this fact and could not find it published anywhere. This label is a finding in itself: an undisclosed pharmacy or fee is information about the provider.
Stale — recheck required: The claim has a source and capture date, but the capture is older than our freshness window for that data type (30 days for prices, 90 for regulatory, 180 for clinical, 365 for credentials), so it needs re-checking before being relied on.

Pricing terms

Advertised entry price: The lowest number a provider promotes, usually a first-month or low-dose teaser. It is rarely what ongoing treatment costs, which is why this site never ranks providers on entry price alone.
Maintenance-dose price: What a month costs once a patient reaches a stable ongoing dose. For dose-escalated pricing this is typically the most meaningful monthly number, and often materially higher than the entry price.
Monthly equivalent: A plan's total cost divided by the months it covers, so prepaid bundles and month-to-month plans can be compared on one axis. A "$999 for 3 months" plan has a $333 monthly equivalent — before membership fees, labs, or shipping.
All-in monthly cost: Monthly equivalent plus required recurring extras: membership fees, mandatory consultations or labs, and shipping. Two providers with the same medication price can differ substantially all-in.
Prepaid plan: A plan billed as one upfront sum for multiple months. Prepayment shifts risk to the patient: if you stop treatment mid-plan, refund terms decide what you get back.
Dose-escalation pricing: Pricing that increases as the prescribed dose increases, common with tirzepatide. A price quoted "from" the lowest dose understates the cost of typical ongoing treatment.
Membership fee: A recurring platform or program fee charged separately from the medication itself. Some providers fold it into the headline price; others add it on top — a major source of misleading comparisons.
Capture date: The date a price or claim was recorded from its source. Every pricing row on this site carries one where available; a price without a capture date is treated as weaker evidence.

Regulatory and pharmacy terms

Compounded medication: A drug prepared by a pharmacy for individual patients rather than manufactured under an approved application. Compounded GLP-1 preparations are not FDA-approved, and the FDA does not review them for safety, effectiveness, or quality before marketing. See the medical disclaimer.
503A pharmacy: A pharmacy compounding patient-specific prescriptions under section 503A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, regulated primarily by state boards of pharmacy. The FDA's compounding pages are the authority on what this does and does not permit.
503B outsourcing facility: A facility registered with the FDA under section 503B that may compound larger batches under federal manufacturing standards (CGMP). Whether a telehealth provider's medication comes from a 503A pharmacy or 503B facility is a disclosure this site tracks.
Dispensing pharmacy: The pharmacy that actually fills and ships the prescription. Many telehealth brands do not name theirs. On this site an undisclosed dispensing pharmacy caps a provider's score at 70/100 — see the methodology.
FDA shortage list: The FDA's database of drugs currently in shortage. Its status for a given drug matters legally: compounding of "essentially a copy" of an approved drug is restricted when the drug is not in shortage. Always check the FDA's current listing rather than relying on a dated page.
IMLC: The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, an agreement that streamlines physician licensing across member states. Membership affects how quickly out-of-state physicians can be licensed — not whether telehealth prescribing is legal in a state.
NLC: The Nurse Licensure Compact, which lets registered nurses hold one multistate license. It concerns nurses, not physicians or nurse practitioners' prescriptive authority — a distinction our state pages are careful about.

Clinical and dosing terms

GLP-1 receptor agonist: A class of medications that mimic the hormone GLP-1, affecting appetite, gastric emptying, and insulin response. Semaglutide and liraglutide are GLP-1 receptor agonists; tirzepatide additionally targets the GIP receptor.
Titration: The stepped increase from a starting dose to a target dose over weeks or months, used to manage side effects. Pricing interacts with titration: the months you spend at low doses may be priced differently from maintenance.
Microdosing: Marketing shorthand for prescribing below label-standard doses. It is not a defined regimen in FDA labeling for these drugs; claims about its benefits should be traced to actual studies, not provider marketing.
Estimand: In a clinical trial, the precise question being estimated — for example, the treatment effect if patients stay on the drug versus the effect counting those who stopped. Two estimands from one trial can yield different headline numbers; our study pages state which one a result uses.
Treatment-regimen vs. efficacy estimand: The two most common framings in GLP-1 trials: the treatment-regimen (intention-to-treat-like) estimand includes data after discontinuation; the efficacy estimand estimates the effect under continued treatment. Marketing tends to quote the larger one without saying so.
Primary endpoint: The outcome a trial was designed and powered to measure — for GLP-1 obesity trials, typically percent body-weight change over the trial period. Secondary endpoints are informative but carry a higher risk of chance findings.

Cite this page

GLP Ranked. "Glossary of terms used on this site." Updated 2026-07-24. https://glpranked.com/glossary/

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