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While it may seem like a fairly recent trend, compounding has been around for quite some time. “But just what is compounding?”, you may be asking yourself. Believe it or not, the answer is actually relatively straightforward. Pharmaceutical compounding is a delicate blend of science and art, creating and preparing individualized, personal medications for a wide variety of treatments and patients.
When a doctor or healthcare practitioner write a prescription for their patient, compounded medications are created based on this prescription, with individual components and ingredients being mixed together, to the exacting dosage and strength that is required by the individual patient. This method and process has several benefits, with the main benefit being allowing the compounding pharmacist to work more closely with the patient and doctor to create a customized medication that is especially tailored for the patient and his or her individual needs.
Understanding Compounding
Compounding requires a degree of specialization in the field, and specially trained professionals prepare these customized medications for each patient’s unique needs. Compounding is a critical component and cornerstone in the science of pharmacy. In fact, compounding is how most medications used to be created in the past, before most pharmaceuticals began to be mass produced by the manufacturers. Today, with an increase in interest to returning to more simple and classic processes, compounding is seeing a growth trend in the industry, and one that is unlikely to slow down anytime soon.
With patients and practitioners both realizing the vast benefits that compounding offers to the patient, the demand for professional compounding has increased. Couple this with the fact that the understanding and realization that the limited current number of dosage forms and strengths of readily available commercial pharmaceuticals, and it is easy to see why more and more patients are turning to this solution.
What Can Compounding Pharmacies Do?
The skilled team at a compounding pharmacy can do many things, including the following:
- Prepare unique dosages and forms of medications that utilize the best of each component and dose for each individual patient.
- Create medications in specialized forms that are not usually readily available, such as chewables, lollipops, flavored suspensions, troches, transdermal gels, and more.
- Prepare medications that are free of many allergens or problem inducing ingredients, such as sugar, lactose, alcohol, dyes, and more.
- Combine compatible ingredients from multiple prescribed medications into a single dosage form or medication, making for easier administration, increased patient compliance, and an overall better experience for both patient and caregiver.
- Create necessary medications that are not readily available commercially.
The Safety and Efficacy of Compounded Pharmaceuticals
As with most prescription medications, the safety and efficacy of any compounded formulation is correlated directly with its preparation, which is one of the reasons why taking care when selecting your compounding pharmacy is crucial.
Compounding pharmacists receive specialized ongoing training, and maintaining quality, state of the art equipment and chemicals of the highest quality are essential and necessary. Of course, experience, knowledge, training and skill are factors that should also play a role in the selection of your pharmacy, so it is important that you get to know the pharmacy and the team who will be working on your medications.
About Pacifica Pharmacy
At Pacifica Pharmacy, we pride ourselves on taking the best care of our patients. Your health and safety are both of our utmost concern, and we follow strict guidelines to make sure that we are consistently producing compounded medications of the very highest quality. Our individualized approach and philosophy to your health care allows us to tailor your medications and treatments to address and meet your individualized pharmaceutical needs.
Our team handles several areas of medication specialties, including the following:
- Pain Management
- Hormone Therapy
- Sleep Aids
- Weight Loss
- Pet Medicines
- Nutriceuticals
- Adrenal Fatigue
- Dermatology
Our compounding professionals can work with you and your health care provider to formulate suitable medications to meet the needs of every member of your family. We pride ourselves on being able to offer our patients a return to personalized health care. Our staff has decades of compounding experience, so you can rest assured that you are in the best hands when working with us. Our staff is regularly exposed to ongoing comprehensive training, and our state of the art equipment and highest quality ingredients round out our offerings to bring you the best care possible.
Learn more about compounding, or catch up on our blog to see how a compounding pharmacy can fit into your life. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. We would love to hear from you!
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