Large manufacturers sometimes discontinue certain drugs, making it difficult for patients who still need such medications to fill and manage their prescriptions. Compounding pharmacists play an important role in the availability and accessibility of such medications by recreating pharmaceutical-based ingredients.
Fremont, CA: Compounding is the pharmaceutical preparation of a licensed pharmacist's drug to meet the specific needs of an individual patient. The patient could be either human or animal. When there is no commercially available drug that meets those requirements, compounding pharmacists perform this procedure. The United States Pharmacopeial Convention defined compounding as preparing, assembling, mixing, altering, packaging, and labeling a specific drug, a delivery device, by a licensed medical practitioner's prescription.
Giving Access to Discontinued Medications
Large manufacturers sometimes discontinue certain drugs, making it difficult for patients who still need such medications to fill and manage their prescriptions. Compounding pharmacists play an important role in the availability and accessibility of such medications by recreating pharmaceutical-based ingredients.
As a result, if one's prescription has been discontinued, pharmacy compounding can ensure that one continues to receive the appropriate medication for one's condition rather than seeking potentially less effective treatment. Compounding pharmacies can obtain the highest quality pharmaceutical ingredients to fill a prescription using the most up-to-date quality control processes, research, and techniques to meet the patient's specific needs.
Allowing Patients Alternative Dosage Forms
It's not uncommon to prefer a different form of one's medication. Patients' most common issue is difficulty swallowing their medications in pill form; it may be easier for them to take their medication in a flavored liquid form.
One can also have one's medication compounded as a topical solution. For example, the compounding pharmacist can use the active ingredients in one's medicine to create a gel or cream that allows the medicine components to be absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream.
