Glossary
A dietary supplement is regulated under a different framework from either an approved drug or a compounded preparation. It requires no pre-market approval for safety and effectiveness, and its labeling may not claim to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent a disease. The evidentiary threshold is far lower than anything else this index tracks.
The regime matters here because one molecule can sit in more than one of them at once. L-carnosine is sold lawfully as an oral supplement while its bulk substance sits in Category 3 of the 503A list, so an oral product is lawful to buy and an injectable preparation of the same dipeptide has no lawful route at all. A reader who checks only one of those records will reach the wrong answer about the other.