quoted from here
compounding pharmacy-warning
- By speranza · Today at 3:27 pm · 1 reply
- In General discussion
- 0 Recommend Follow replies
- Shared with the public
Warning re a compounding pharmacy, Russellville, which is recommended in several places on this site.
"In August 2012, numerous agencies, including the FBI, DEA, FDA, Alabama's attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Unit and the Alabama Board of Pharmacy, here and here executed a search warrant on three Alabama phamacies, Franklin, Sheffield, and Russellville. All three specialized in compounding drugs. More specifically, all three were involved in compounding pain medication cremes. At the time of the search, sources reported that it was not the compounded drugs in questions but the business practices of these pharmacies….”
It was questioned whether or not these pharmacies were "manufacturing" instead of compounding.”
http://www.lawofcompoundingmedications.com/2012/10/franklin-sheffield-and-r ussellville.html
The person who recommended them apparently had a good experience with them.
It may be the case that they became widely known as a place to take this kind of prescription because they compounded many pain medications. Ironically, their volume may have been a sign of the problem.
They had over 200 employees; it was not clear who owned them; and the question arose about whether they were functionally a manufacturing facility operating without the oversight and without meeting the criteria for a manufacturing facility. This is the kind of cutting corners that caused the grave problems recently in the news.
So, although I don't know this, I suspect the very reason they made a name for themselves was their volume, which was the reason for which they were/ are under investigation.
Note that it says "it was not the compounded drugs in questions [sic]", so I wouldn't panic if you have products from them--especially if they are topical and not to be injected. But I'd look elsewhere in the future.
What to do to find a reliable compounding pharmacy?
As far as I can tell, there is no single, straightforward way to tell if a compounding pharmacy is licensed, recently inspected, not under investigation, without a record of meaningful complaints, etc. This describes the lengthy ad hoc procedure.
http://www.lawofcompoundingmedications.com/2013/01/credibility-101-compound ing-pharmacy.html
I am exasperated that this is apparently yet another area where we have to do the research ourselves.
Note that I have made this a PUBLIC discussion.
Speranza
No comments:
Post a Comment