What you can sell

A real catalogue, with the limits attached.

Most of what makes a consumer health brand work is choosing a category that is both wanted and defensible. These are the ones we would build on, ordered by how solid the ground is rather than by how well they would sell.

Two ways to fill a shelf

503A compounded formulations are made for an individual patient against a valid prescription. They are the reason a brand can offer something the pharmacy down the road cannot, and the reason customers stay. The rule that shapes everything: a compounder may not make what is essentially a copy of a commercially available drug. The formulations below each have a genuine reason to exist.

Commercially available prescriptions are ordinary FDA-approved products, dispensed normally. Thinner margins, but they anchor your pricing and cover the customers a compounded form is wrong for.

Factors is not a pharmacy and does not compound or dispense. What is available to your brand is set by the pharmacy partner's licensing, the prescribing clinician's judgment, and the state the customer is in. Nothing on this page is legal advice or a commitment that a given formulation will be available to you.

Ready now

Settled pathways. These are the categories a first launch should be built on.

Sexual health

The most proven cash-pay category in telehealth, and a genuine compounding story.

High intent, high repeat, and a customer who actively prefers not to have the conversation in person. Compounded dose forms give you something the pharmacy down the road cannot dispense, which is what keeps it from becoming a price fight over generic tablets.

  • Tadalafil orally disintegrating tablet503A compounded
    ODT, 10 mg

    No commercially available ODT form, so the dose form itself is the clinical difference rather than a copy of the tablet.

  • Sildenafil and tadalafil combination troche503A compounded
    Troche

    A combination with no commercial equivalent. Onset and duration profile is the reason a clinician would choose it.

  • Sildenafil, tadalafilCommercially available
    Oral tablet

    Standard generics, dispensed normally. Low margin, but it anchors price and catches customers the compounded forms are wrong for.

The constraint

Cardiovascular screening and nitrate interaction checks are not optional here, and a clinician will decline some patients outright. Build the funnel expecting that.

Hair loss

Long treatment horizons, and topical combinations that only a compounder can make.

Treatment is indefinite by nature, so retention is structurally good. The topical combination is the product: it is the reason a customer stays with your brand instead of buying generic finasteride anywhere.

  • Topical finasteride and minoxidil solution503A compounded
    Topical solution

    There is no FDA-approved topical finasteride in the US and no commercial combination product, so this is a true compound rather than a copy.

  • Low-dose oral minoxidil503A compounded
    Oral, 2.5 mg

    Commercial minoxidil tablets are made for hypertension at much higher strengths; the low-dose form is a genuine compounding need.

  • FinasterideCommercially available
    Oral tablet, 1 mg

    The standard of care generic. Cheap, and the entry point for most customers.

The constraint

Finasteride carries sexual side-effect and mood warnings that have driven litigation elsewhere in the industry. Consent language and adverse-event handling deserve real attention, not a checkbox.

Skin

The oldest legitimate use of compounding, and the most natural fit for a creator brand.

Custom-strength actives are what compounding pharmacies have always done, so the regulatory ground is solid. It is also the category where your aesthetic and your audience's trust do the most commercial work.

  • Tretinoin with niacinamide503A compounded
    Cream, custom strength

    Strength and vehicle are tailored to the individual's tolerance, which is the classic patient-specific compounding case.

  • Brightening combination cream503A compounded
    Cream

    Hydroquinone with tretinoin and a corticosteroid in one base. No commercial equivalent at custom strengths.

  • Azelaic acid, clindamycinCommercially available
    Topical

    Standard prescription topicals for rosacea and acne.

The constraint

Hydroquinone has been the subject of FDA scrutiny and is banned over the counter in several markets. Treat photosensitivity and pregnancy contraindications as hard gates in intake.

Hormone health

High lifetime value, and a customer population that is genuinely underserved.

Menopause care in particular is under-treated, and the customers are motivated, articulate and loyal. Dose individualization is real clinical practice, not a marketing story.

  • Estradiol and progesterone503A compounded
    Topical cream, individualized

    Individualized strengths and combinations for patients who cannot use a commercial fixed-dose product.

  • Testosterone503A compounded
    Topical cream

    Compounded strengths where the commercial gel is unsuitable. Schedule III, so handling is tighter.

  • Estradiol, progesteroneCommercially available
    Oral and transdermal

    FDA-approved products, which should be the default where they fit the patient.

The constraint

The 2020 NASEM report was critical of compounded bioidentical hormone therapy where an approved product would do, and FDA has echoed that. Testosterone is a controlled substance with state-by-state telemedicine rules. This category needs the most clinical governance of the five.

Metabolic support

The durable part of weight care, without depending on the GLP-1 pathway.

Lets you serve the metabolic-health audience with formulations whose legal footing does not move under you. Lower headline prices than GLP-1s, but the customer stays.

  • Low-dose naltrexone503A compounded
    Oral capsule, 4.5 mg

    Commercial naltrexone is 50 mg. There is no low-dose commercial product, so this is a textbook compounding case.

  • Methylcobalamin, lipotropic injection503A compounded
    Injection kit

    Combination injectables with no commercial equivalent.

  • Metformin, bupropion, naltrexoneCommercially available
    Oral

    Approved products prescribed normally, where a clinician judges them appropriate.

The constraint

Evidence for low-dose naltrexone in weight management is thinner than customers assume. Do not let marketing outrun what the clinicians will stand behind.

Conditional

Sellable, but only in a specific form. Read the constraint before planning around it.

GLP-1 weight care

Sellable, but only as the branded product. The compounded route has closed.

It is the category with the most demand in consumer health, and pretending otherwise would be silly. It can be run on approved products at cash-pay prices.

  • Semaglutide, tirzepatideCommercially available
    Branded injection

    The FDA-approved products, dispensed normally. Thin margins and supply-dependent, but legitimate.

The constraint

FDA resolved the tirzepatide shortage in December 2024 and the semaglutide shortage in February 2025, removing the basis for 503A pharmacies to compound copies. Court challenges by the Outsourcing Facilities Association failed. In April 2026 FDA proposed excluding semaglutide, tirzepatide and liraglutide from the 503B Bulks List. Any business plan that assumes compounded GLP-1s is planning on ground that has already moved.

Watch list

Not sellable to consumers today. Worth understanding because the position is moving.

Peptides

Moving toward compoundable. Not there yet, and not something to promise an audience.

If the current direction holds, this becomes a differentiated category with few credible operators in it. Worth understanding early; not worth building a launch around.

  • BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, MOTS-c, Epitalon, Semax503A compounded
    Various

    Placed in Category 2 on the interim 503A Bulks List in 2023. The Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee issued favorable recommendations for all six in July 2026.

The constraint

PCAC recommendations are advisory and nonbinding, and FDA has not issued final determinations. Until it does, these are not a category you can responsibly sell to a consumer audience. Research-use-only supply is a different business entirely, and that is what RUO Pro and Polymer are for.

Revenue that is not a prescription

Worth planning deliberately rather than treating as an afterthought. It carries no clinician gate, so it can launch first and warm an audience while the prescription side is being set up.

  • At-home lab panels. A natural first purchase, and the thing that makes the care that follows feel earned rather than sold.
  • Supplements. No prescription, no clinician gate. Marketed under DSHEA rules, which means structure-function claims only.
  • Membership. A recurring fee covering access and follow-up. Smooths the revenue that per-refill pricing leaves lumpy.
How the money works

You are the
merchant of record.

The customer pays your business, on your merchant account. Not ours, and not a platform wallet you draw down from. That is the difference between owning a business and renting a storefront.

  • The customer relationship is yours. Your name on the statement, your name in their inbox, your list.
  • Factors takes a fee from each transaction. We earn when you sell. There is no upfront platform cost and no monthly seat to pay before anything works.
  • Pharmacy and product costs come out of the sale. No inventory to buy, no minimum order, nothing to hold.
  • What remains settles to you. It is your revenue, in your account.
One transaction, opened upTadalafil ODT at $79.00 a month
Customer pays your business$79.00
Pharmacy and product-$22.00
Payment processing-$2.59
Factors fee-$7.90
Settles to you$46.51

Illustrative arithmetic showing how a transaction is sequenced. It is not a quote, a rate card or a projection, and Factors makes no representation about the revenue any business will achieve. Real rates are set in your commercial terms before launch.

Open the demo storefront Build a basket, then switch to the operator view to see this applied to it.

What it takes to run one of these

The categories above are not equally easy. Sexual health and hair are largely asynchronous and scale cleanly. Hormone health needs the most clinical governance and the most careful consent. Anything involving a controlled substance narrows which states you can serve and how a clinician must evaluate the patient.

Cash-pay is the model throughout. Insurance billing is a different business with a different cost structure, and it is not what this platform does.

Expect a meaningful share of customers to be declined by a clinician, in every category. That is the system working. Plan your funnel maths around it rather than treating it as leakage.

Request beta access