Facts About Buying Medication At A Compounding Pharmacy

By Diane Peterson


Most people are used to getting prescriptions from doctors and driving to their favorite drugstores to have them filled. They have never thought much about the medications that may not be filled at their favorite pharmacy. Most drugs stores today only dispense medicine. A compounding pharmacy on the other hand is able to get the components required to make a specific drug, measure them precisely and then mix them to create the medicine.

A compounding pharmacist is also capable of removing certain ingredients from drugs in order to prevent allergic reactions if you are allergic to some of the ingredients of the medicine prescribed for you. The professional will mix small doses of the chemical substances that are present in the prescription so that you can take the medicine safely. If you wish to have medicines that taste better for your kids, the pharmacist can add flavors to them.

Compounding pharmacists aim to create products that suit the unique needs of their patients. Examples of these needs are age, size and weight of the patient. Looking for drugs in pharmacies that compound drugs is ideal, particularly if you do not want to use standard prescription drugs or if you have a problem using them.

Compounding pharmacies can create medication for a number of conditions such as adrenal fatigue, pain and wounds among others. You may fear taking compounded medicine since it is different from the medicines available in the market. However, the United States Food and Drug administration approves compounded drugs if the professional who compounds them is qualified and licensed.

Since medicinal drugs can pose health risks, this industry is heavily regulated. Individual state boards and the FDA have introduced strict guidelines to ensure that patients buying the products of these drug stores remain safe. The bulk drug substances that are used in this kind of pharmacies should be approved and safe to compound with.

Pharmacists are not allowed to compound medicines with ingredients that are not present on an approved list of substances. It is illegal to use ineffective and unsafe substances to compound medicines. It is not a must for pharmacies to report the side effects that they discover in patients using compounded drugs, but ethical pharmacies volunteer to report them.

The pharmacies that compound drugs are also required to maintain high quality control standards. Their laboratories must abide by strict facility guidelines in order to ensure consistency and safety in each batch of the drugs they produce. In order to know that a pharmacy complies with these guidelines, you may contact the board of pharmacy in your state. Inspectors from the state board of pharmacy usually carry out regular checks on licensed pharmacies and on batches of the drugs that are being dispensed to ensure that they are safe.

When searching for a compounding drugstore, you may ask your health insurer or doctor to refer you to one. Alternatively, you can search for a good pharmacy in directories that contain information about such drug stores in your state. Good drug stores compound ethical, effective and safe products. They are willing to explain the standards, quality control measures and testing they utilize to ensure that their drugs are safe.




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