How A Compounding Pharmacy Can Fill Prescriptions A Regular Pharmacy Cannot

By Marjorie Vargas


A compounding pharmacy is just like a regular one that can be found in many grocery stores and in drug stores everywhere, but with one significant difference. This particular type of pharmacy can make specialty drugs that may not be readily available in common facilities. They are a lifesaving option for patients who cannot get their medications through normal facilities.

Originally compounding was the method that the drugs were made and then distributed to the people who needed them or to the doctors, and they used ingredients found in nature, including plant and animal oils. They combined these ingredients to make items such as perfumes, dyes and eventually medicines for healing. Eventually, modern facilities produced more and more medications in mass production, making the specialist pharmacists more uncommon and harder to locate.

The reasons a patient may opt for compounding versus conventional can vary. It can be because they may be allergic to an ingredient in the commercial version, and the specializing pharmacist can remove it, or if a child or pet needs a medication in a form that isn't available in the manufactured version. A popular use is to produce bioidentical hormones and other forms of hormone therapy that can be tailored to the specific patient's needs as dictated by their physician.

There are two types of this process that are recognized in the industry. The first is the "traditional", which includes intravenous fluids which are typically used in hospitals for its patients or other medications that are formed for an individual's specific needs. It can be medicine that is taken orally or by IV, it just needs to be for one specific person and basically just changes the form of the original medication.

The second process type is "non-traditional", which allows the pharmacist to become more creative to help solve more complex problems with medication administration. Both animals and children can benefit from a more appealing tasting medication or an easier form to ingest. Pills can be made liquid or transdermal, under the skin, made into a cream or very small doses can be made to accommodate the needs of infants.

Some of these specialized pharmacies can reproduce a medication that may have been discontinued by the manufacturer due to lower sales in the general market. A patient may have found that med was especially effective for them and want to continue using it, so a licensed compounding pharmacy may be able to assist them.

In the US, these facilities must be licensed and are subject to some of the same state regulations that their counterparts are held to. The PCAB (Pharmacy Compound Accreditation Board) is the agency that regulates these specialized labs but this accreditation is not required or mandatory, and they are only inspected every three years to check for compliance with the standards that are set for other pharmacies.

The compounding pharmacy can be of a great benefit to many different groups of patients, depending on need, including animals. Most of the population can get their medications in the normal fashion, but for a select group of people needing specialized prescriptions, a compounding pharmacy may be the answer.




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