Is Empower Pharmacy legit? Ratings, lawsuits, FDA record
Empower is two facilities rather than one, and the distinction decides everything below. Empower Pharma on West Sam Houston Parkway North is a registered outsourcing facility under section 503B, on the FDA's inspection schedule since 2016. Empower Pharmacy on North Sam Houston Parkway West is a compounding pharmacy under section 503A, inspected by the state. Both were sent a warning letter on the same day in April 2025 — each for failing the conditions of its own section — and the 503B facility had already been sent one in 2021.
Houston, Texas.
What does the FDA record show for Empower Pharmacy?
One facility under this name appears in the FDA's register of outsourcing facilities — Empower Pharma, Houston, TX, registered since 2016-07-16. Its last inspection was 2025-11-14, and investigators left a Form 483, with the action based on that inspection recorded as open. The FDA has issued 3 warning letters touching this company, the most recent dated 2025-04-02, each linked below and opened before being cited here. The wider number is the one worth carrying away. Of the 96 registered outsourcing facilities in the United States, 41 have never been inspected. Of the 55 that have, 53 were handed a Form 483; only 2 came away without one. And whichever pharmacy fills your prescription, almost no seller tells you which one it is.
The federal record
| Listed in the FDA register as | Empower Pharma, Houston, TX |
|---|---|
| Initial registration | 2016-07-16 |
| Last inspection | 2025-11-14 |
| Form 483 issued | yes — read the 483 |
| Action based on last inspection | Open |
One name, more than one facility. The register entry above is Empower Pharma at 5980 West Sam Houston Parkway North, Suite 300 — the 503B outsourcing facility. Empower Pharmacy at 7601 North Sam Houston Parkway West, Suite 100 is a separate facility operating under section 503A, and it is not on this register because 503A pharmacies never are. Searching either name returns results about both, which is how the two get reported as one company with one record.
Read from the FDA register of outsourcing facilities on 2026-09-11. The FDA marks that page current as of 2026-09-08.
Warning letters
2025-04-02 — Compounding Pharmacy/Adulterated Drug Products
Addressed to Empower Clinic Services, LLC dba Empower Pharmacy — 7601 N Sam Houston Pkwy W, Houston, the 503A pharmacy.
The 503A pharmacy, inspected from 24 September to 4 October 2024. The language is unusually direct for the genre: FDA investigators recorded “serious deficiencies in your practices for producing drug products, which put patients at risk”, and found that products intended to be sterile had been “prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions, whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health” — which makes them adulterated under section 501(a)(2)(A) of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. A Form 483 was issued at the close of the inspection on 4 October 2024, and the company responded twice before the letter was sent.
2025-04-02 — Compounding Pharmacy/Adulterated Drug Products
Addressed to Empower Clinic Services, LLC dba Empower Pharma — 5980 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston, the 503B outsourcing facility.
The other facility, addressed to the chief executive on the same day. This one opens by reciting the registration — an outsourcing facility under section 503B since 16 July 2016, most recently registered 6 December 2024 — and reports an inspection from 1 to 28 August 2024 in which products “failed to meet the conditions of section 503B necessary for drugs produced by an outsourcing facility to qualify for exemptions”. Two letters on one date is not duplication: they concern two buildings, two inspections a month apart, and two different sections of the law.
2021-10-15 — Compounding Pharmacy/Adulterated Drug Products
Addressed to Empower Clinic Services, LLC — the 503B outsourcing facility, despite the pharmacy name in the FDA index.
Filed in the FDA index under the pharmacy name, but the letter itself opens with the outsourcing facility registration of 16 July 2016 and reports an inspection from 12 February to 6 March 2020 — so it concerns the 503B facility, not the 503A pharmacy. It matters for sequence: the 2025 findings against that facility were not a first encounter.
What its star ratings say
The ratings split by facility and by site. Google's 4.4 from 11,612 ratings belongs to the 503A pharmacy on North Sam Houston Parkway West; Yelp's page for the same address prints 2.0 from 159. The BBB grades Empower F, citing two complaints it did not answer, and it is not accredited. The 503B facility's own Google listing has six ratings, too few to count.
| Where | Listing | Rating | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empower Pharmacy, 7601 N Sam Houston Pkwy W, Houston, TX (503A) | 4.4 of 5 | 11,612 | |
| Yelp | Empower Pharmacy, 7601 N Sam Houston Pkwy W, Houston, TX | 2.0 of 5 | 159 |
| BBB | Empower Pharmacy, Houston, TX | F, not accredited | — |
Trustpilot has a profile for empowerpharmacy.com, but no score for it could be read. Google figures are from each listing on Google Maps. Yelp, Trustpilot and the BBB refuse this site's reader, so their figures are as Google prints them for the listing linked. A BBB grade is a letter for how a business handles complaints, not an average of reviews. Listings with fewer than ten ratings are left out. Read on 2026-09-13.
Lawsuits
The case that matters to a buyer is Eli Lilly's, open in Houston. Lilly says Empower is “not 'compounding,' but unlawfully manufacturing and selling untested, unapproved weight loss drugs on a large scale”. On 29 April 2026 the court dismissed Lilly's federal Lanham Act and Texas claims and let its claims under eight other states' laws go on. Separately, Iowa's pharmacy board ordered Empower to stop shipping compounded HCG into the state and put it on three years' probation, and Iowa's Court of Appeals upheld that in 2023.
Eli Lilly and Company v. Empower Clinic Services, LLC
U.S. District Court, S.D. Texas, No. 4:25-cv-03464. Filed 2025-07-25; defendant.
Lilly says two compounded tirzepatide products are knockoffs of Mounjaro and Zepbound, made and sold at scale without testing or approval.
Open. On 29 April 2026 the Lanham Act and Texas common-law claims were dismissed; claims under the laws of Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington go on. Empower answered on 13 May 2026.
Eli Lilly and Company v. Empower Clinic Services, LLC d/b/a Empower Pharmacy
U.S. District Court, D. New Jersey, No. 2:25-cv-02183. Filed 2025-04-01; defendant.
Lilly's first suit, over “Tirzepatide ODT” and an injectable tirzepatide and niacinamide combination.
Closed. Lilly withdrew it without prejudice on 25 July 2025, the day it filed in Texas.
Empower Pharmacy v. Iowa Board of Pharmacy
Court of Appeals of Iowa, No. 22-0052. Decided 2023-02-08; appellant.
The board found Empower's compounded HCG was an essential copy of a commercially available drug, ordered it to stop shipping compounded HCG into Iowa, and put it on three years' probation.
Affirmed on 8 February 2023: the court upheld the board's decision.
Metuchen Pharmaceuticals LLC v. Empower Pharmaceuticals LLC
U.S. District Court, S.D. Texas, No. 4:18-cv-04344. Filed 2018-11-16; defendant.
Patent infringement, brought by Metuchen Pharmaceuticals and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma.
Closed. Dismissed with prejudice by agreement, January 2019.
Other cases: employment, contracts and the like
- Empower Clinic Services, L.L.C. v. LegitScript LLC — U.S. District Court, D. Oregon, No. 3:25-cv-00514. Filed 2025-03-26; plaintiff. Empower's antitrust suit against LegitScript, the certification service payment and ad platforms rely on. Closed. Dismissed with prejudice by agreement in March 2026; the terms are not on the docket.
- Empower Clinic Services, L.L.C. d/b/a Empower Pharmacy v. Samuel Pray — Texas Court of Appeals, First District, No. 01-25-00410-CV. Decided 2026-08-25; appellant. Empower sued a former employee over a noncompete; he countersued for retaliation, and his pleading described internal concerns about “adulterated API”. Reversed and remanded on 25 August 2026, with his retaliation and antitrust counterclaims ordered dismissed.
- Empower Clinic Services, L.L.C. v. Bio Filling Solutions Inc. — U.S. District Court, S.D. Texas, No. 4:23-cv-04123. Filed 2023-10-30; plaintiff. Theft of trade secrets and breach of contract. Closed. Final judgment 24 June 2026.
- Empower Clinic Services, L.L.C. v. Teer — U.S. Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Texas, No. 26-03050. Filed 2026-02-13; plaintiff. Asked that a debt from a former associate not be wiped out in his bankruptcy. Dismissed, June 2026.
- Empower Clinic Services, L.L.C. v. Inovalon, Inc. — U.S. District Court, D. Delaware, No. 1:24-cv-01322. Filed 2024-12-05; plaintiff. Breach of contract; the complaint is sealed. Closed. Withdrawn by Empower, September 2025.
- Mullins v. Empower Clinic Services LLC — U.S. District Court, S.D. Texas, No. 4:26-cv-01033. Filed 2026-02-09; defendant. A former chief sales officer's claim under a severance agreement. Open. Empower's motion to dismiss was denied on 11 June 2026.
- Shehadeh v. Empower Clinic Services, LLC — U.S. District Court, S.D. Texas, No. 4:26-cv-02748. Filed 2026-04-07; defendant. Employment discrimination. Open.
- Price v. Empower Clinic Services, LLC — U.S. District Court, S.D. Texas, No. 4:26-cv-06581. Filed 2026-08-12; defendant. The docket does not say what the claim is. Open.
- Moreno v. Allison Medical, Inc. — U.S. District Court, S.D. Texas, No. 3:20-cv-00300. Filed 2020-09-25; third-party defendant. Product liability over an insulin syringe, in which the syringe maker brought Empower in. Closed. Dismissed with prejudice, August 2022.
Searched on CourtListener, which holds federal court dockets and some state appeals-court opinions. It does not hold state trial courts, pharmacy-board actions or attorney-general cases, so a case missing here may still exist there. Read on 2026-09-13.
What was checked and not found
- No recall is recorded against the facility in the FDA register.
Which seller uses Empower Pharmacy?
No seller whose pages could be read publishes it. 11 sellers were checked on the pages a buyer reads before ordering, last on 2026-09-14; 10 could be read, and 1 names one. Since the pharmacy is what decides the quality of a compounded drug, that omission is the most consequential blank on a checkout page. The full disclosure audit lists what each seller was asked and what it said.
Questions
- Is Empower Pharmacy inspected by the FDA?
- One of its facilities is. Empower Pharma, Houston, TX is a registered outsourcing facility under section 503B, which puts it on the FDA's inspection schedule — it was last inspected 2025-11-14 and investigators left a Form 483. The other facility, operating under section 503A, is not on that register and is inspected by the state instead. A single yes or no about "Empower Pharmacy" is therefore wrong either way, which is the whole reason this page separates them.
- Which telehealth company uses Empower Pharmacy?
- Unknown, and that is a finding rather than a research failure. 11 sellers were checked on the pages a buyer actually reads before ordering, last on 2026-09-14; 10 could be read, and only 1 names one. The pharmacy decides the quality of a compounded drug, and it is the single fact the seller does not put on the page.
- Has Empower Pharmacy had an FDA warning letter?
- 3 are on record, and each is linked above. A warning letter is not a closure or a fine — it is the FDA saying practices appear to violate the law and giving the company a chance to correct them. What it gives a buyer is a dated, public account of what investigators found inside the building.
- Has Empower Pharmacy been sued?
- The case that matters to a buyer is Eli Lilly's, open in Houston. Lilly says Empower is “not 'compounding,' but unlawfully manufacturing and selling untested, unapproved weight loss drugs on a large scale”. On 29 April 2026 the court dismissed Lilly's federal Lanham Act and Texas claims and let its claims under eight other states' laws go on. Separately, Iowa's pharmacy board ordered Empower to stop shipping compounded HCG into the state and put it on three years' probation, and Iowa's Court of Appeals upheld that in 2023.
- Is Empower Pharmacy FDA approved?
- No compounding pharmacy is, and the phrase does not apply. FDA approval attaches to a drug that has been through trials and holds a label; compounding is an exemption from that approval, not a version of it. What Empower does have is FDA registration as an outsourcing facility, which is a different and much weaker thing: it puts the facility on the FDA's inspection schedule and makes the results public. Those results are on this page.
- Does a warning letter mean Empower is shut down?
- No. A warning letter is the FDA telling a company its practices appear to violate the law and giving it the chance to correct them; it is not a closure, a recall or a fine. The register still lists the facility as registered, with the action based on its last inspection shown as open. What the letter changes is what a buyer knows: sterile products from this facility were found to have been made under insanitary conditions in an inspection the FDA describes as putting patients at risk.
Other pharmacies checked
- Olympia Pharmaceuticals — FDA registered
- Strive Pharmacy — not on the FDA register
- Hallandale Pharmacy — not on the FDA register
- Red Rock Pharmacy — not on the FDA register
- Belmar Pharmacy — no register entry under its name; 1 warning letter, to the group about a Florida pharmacy
Last updated 2026-09-13 — FDA register, warning letters, star ratings and court dockets read. Read and dated by Alex Seot.