Compounding
Pharmacy compounding is the ageless art and science of preparing personalized medications for patients with unique needs. The practice dates to the very beginning of the pharmacy profession and was the standard means of providing prescription medications before pharmaceutical companies started mass-producing drugs. Those commercial drugs can no longer meet the needs of all patients individually because they are limited in the strength and dosage.
forms available. This is due to distribution, storage, stability, and profitability issues. With new technology and techniques, compounding pharmacists are able to make customized medications to meet the specific needs of their patients. Individual ingredients are mixed together in the exact strength and dosage form required by the patient. Our compounding specialists can prepare medications free of problem-causing excipients such as sugar, lactose, dyes, alcohol, or preservatives. Our ultimate goal is to work closely with the health care practitioners to create the best medication for each patient.
Sterile Compounding Pharmacy Dosage Forms:
  • Injections (aqueous and oil vehicles)
  • IV admixtures
  • Ophthalmic (solutions, suspensions, sprays, and ointments)
  • Irrigating Solutions
  • Inhalation solutions (multiple ingredients can be combined to improve compliance)
Non-Sterile Compounding Pharmacy Dosage Forms:
  • Oral capsules, tablets, lozenges, and liquids
  • Topical creams, ointments, sprays, and gels
  • Specialty deodorant sticks or lipstick forms
  • Oral mouthwashes
  • Medicated lollipops
  • Vaginal & Rectal suppositories
Benefits of Working with a Compounding Pharmacy:
Allergy Immunotherapy is a long-term treatment option that helps re-educate the immune system so it no longer over-reacts to allergic triggers.
Immunotherapy formulations are customized and prepared for each patient based on the results of an allergy skin or blood test. A typical course of allergy immunotherapy will take a few years to complete, but it is the only treatment that provides long-lasting relief, with the potential to become totally allergy free.
Compounding FAQs
What is compounding, and why is it necessary?
Compounding is the creation of a pharmaceutical preparation—a drug—by a licensed pharmacist to meet the unique needs of an individual patient (either human or animal) when a commercially available drug does not meet those needs. A patient may not be able to tolerate the commercially available drug, the exact preparation needed may not be commercially available, or a patient may require a drug that is currently in shortage or discontinued. The U.S. Pharmacopeia Convention (USP) formally defines compounding as “the preparation, mixing, assembling, altering, packaging, and labeling of a drug, drug-delivery device, or device in accordance with a licensed practitioner's prescription, medication order, or initiative based on the practitioner/patient/ pharmacist/compounder relationship in the course of professional practice.”
Following are a few examples of how a compounding pharmacist can
customize medications based upon a doctor’s prescription to meet a patient’s needs:
  • Customize strength or dosage.
  • Flavor a medication (to make it more palatable for a child or a pet).
  • Reformulate the drug to exclude an unwanted, nonessential ingredient, such as lactose, gluten, or a dye to which a patient is allergic.
  • Change the form of the medication for patients who, for example, have difficulty swallowing or experience stomach upset when taking oral medication.
Compounding pharmacists can put drugs into specially flavored liquids, topical creams, transdermal gels, suppositories, or other dosage forms suitable for patients’ unique needs. Compounding does not include making copies of commercially available drug products, as this is not allowed by law.
What is a compounding pharmacy?
While most pharmacies offer some level of compounding, most compounding is done in pharmacies that have made the investment in equipment and training to do so safely and efficiently. The preparations offered by these compounding pharmacies can be nonsterile (ointments, creams, liquids, or capsules that are used in areas of the body where absolute sterility is not necessary) or sterile (usually intended for the eye, or injection into body tissues or the blood).
All licensed pharmacists learn during their training and education to perform basic compounding. In addition, most pharmacies have some compounding tools, such as a mortar and pestle for grinding materials, graduated cylinders for measuring liquids, balances for weighing solids, spatulas for mixing materials, and ointment slabs on which to work. With such tools and through applying their knowledge, all pharmacists routinely prepare nonsterile compounded preparations when requested by prescribers.
Are Compounded Prescriptions Safe?
There are benefits associated with compounding, many of which focus on providing patients with pharmaceutical products that have been customized to fit their own unique needs when standard marketed drugs fail to do so. Compounding is often required for medical reasons; some patients require a particular non-essential ingredient to be removed from their medication to prevent an allergic reaction. Others require compounded
medication to acquire an exact dosage amount that is unique to their own personal needs and which may not be available in the available marketed drugs. Compounding pharmacies are also used for more optional reasons. Often times, patients will need their medications in a different form. Pharmaceutical compounding is also used to change the taste and color of medications, to make it more palatable and aesthetically appealing to patients, especially with children and even animals.
What Are the Benefits of Compounding?
While most pharmacies offer some level of compounding, most compounding is done in pharmacies that have made the investment in equipment and training to do so safely and efficiently. The preparations offered by these compounding pharmacies can be nonsterile (ointments, creams, liquids, or capsules that are used in areas of the body where absolute sterility is not necessary) or sterile (usually intended for the eye, or injection into body tissues or the blood).
All licensed pharmacists learn during their training and education to perform basic compounding. In addition, most pharmacies have some compounding tools, such as a mortar and pestle for grinding materials, graduated cylinders for measuring liquids, balances for weighing solids, spatulas for mixing materials, and ointment slabs on which to work. With such tools and through applying their knowledge, all pharmacists routinely prepare nonsterile compounded preparations when requested by prescribers.