Pharmacy Compounding 101

Pharmacy Compounding 101

What is compounding?  First, let’s conjure up an image in our minds of the job of an ‘old-time’ pharmacist. Picture brown bottles of chemicals, a marble pestle and mortar and a small square of paper containing cryptic words and symbols. Years ago, the duty of the pharmacist was to interpret a prescription written by a doctor, add the ordered chemicals into the pestle and mortar, physically grind ingredients together and then make those combinations into ‘pharmaceutically elegant’ formulations.

Fast forward 100 years and it seems that traditional compounding has taken a backseat to commercially manufactured products with ’one size fits all’ dosage. What sets compounders apart from traditional pharmacists is that we are able to create medications to fit the unique needs of a patient. Whether we’re changing the dosage form from a solid tablet to a liquid, avoiding non-essential ingredients that the patient may be allergic to or simply providing a strength of medication that is not commercially available, our options are virtually endless.

Compounding pharmacies are also on the cutting edge of treatment plans as we can customize medications tailored to an individual’s needs. Take for example the case of patients with diabetic neuropathy. One particular study shows that up to 26% of people experience nerve pain which results from poor circulation due to complications of diabetes. Compounding pharmacists can make topical creams to reduce/alleviate this pain, most times in dosages lower than what are required orally and with far fewer side effects. Compounders can also make medications to treat hormone imbalances, thyroid deficiencies, nutritional insufficiency and infections requiring antibiotic therapy. Our expertise ranges from simply flavoring a medication to working with doctors to create a custom made pharmaceutical product based on an individual’s particular symptoms, age, gender and coexisting conditions. We can also provide this type of service to our veterinary patients as well.

Together with the methods and knowledge of our forefathers coupled with advances in today’s medicine,  compounding pharmacists have the ability to meet the individual needs of patients using a vast array of knowledge, chemicals, formulas, dosage forms and options not otherwise afforded in traditional community pharmacies. 

Andrea Ewen, R.Ph.
Co-owner, Medicine Solutions Pharmacy
712 E. Bay Ave.
Manahawkin, NJ 08050
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