Compounding Benefits

Pharmacy compounding is a practice that merges art and science, and results in the preparation of customized medications that are specific to patient needs. Its history can be traced back to the origins of pharmacy. Compounding allows a medication to be personalized for individual requirements and even taste preferences. For example—a compounding pharmacist can put a patient’s medication into a different dosage form or alter its taste to better suit the taste preferences of the patient.

The ability to create these personalized medications enables compounding pharmacists to help patients with a wide variety of needs. It also helps avoid patient non-compliance, which means that patients may be either unable or unwilling to use the medication as directed. Many patients are allergic to preservatives or dyes, or require a dosage that is different from the standard drug strengths. Compounding is an ideal solution for those patients.

Beyond creating medications that are difficult to find, a compounding pharmacist can even create medications that were discontinued. Quite often, large pharmaceutical manufacturers will discontinue the production of a specific medication. Perhaps not enough patients are utilizing that drug or it is unprofitable to continue mass-producing it. As a result, the patients who still need and use that drug suffer.

A compounding pharmacist can re-create that medication through the art of compounding, so even if only one person in the entire world still requires that medication, that patient can have that customized level of care, which truly works specifically to address his or her needs.