Supply and Demand 101: Compounding Pharmacies are Everywhere!

Recently while doing some traveling, I noticed that compounding human and animal pharmacies are not only in big cities but in very small towns across America. The add for this compounding is for a pharmacy in a very small town in Oklahoma. This saturation in the market suggest there is a lot of illegal compounding being done;  it is hard to believe that many people need that many compounded medications--maybe they want or like them--but need in a legal qualifying sense. 

 A couple of years after I got out of law school, the legal profession realized that law schools were producing more attorneys than the market needed.  Thus, numerous law school graduates could not find jobs or make a living.  Law schools had to adjust to the market.  I haven't done any official study, but just from doing research on the internet and from my travels it sure appears there are way more compounding pharmacists and compounding pharmacies than are needed.  I am not suggesting that small towns don't need pharmacists that can compound medications.  I am simply questioning whether universities and colleges are turning out more pharmacists than are actually needed if you just look at the need for "legal" compounding.  Is it that universities and colleges are graduating pharmacists who cannot find jobs elsewhere and thus must turn to compounding to try to make a living?  Is it that pharmacists would rather mix things up than count pills?  Is it that there is a lot more money in compounding prescriptions than simply filling prescriptions with manufactured drugs?  Is it that it is a family tradition much like in other professions and thus if a parent is a pharmacists the kids are expected to go to pharmacy school when in truth they would rather choose a different profession?  I don't know the answer, but I do suggest universities and college examine the numbers, and if they are producing too many pharmacists they should reduce the number they allow into the program; if they are producing too many pharmacist who simply prefer to compound medications rather than count pills then maybe there needs to be more specialization or concentration in the courses taken.  For example, compounding pharmacist are required to take more specific classes on how to compound medications; whereas, those who prefer not to compound medications on a large scale take more of the traditional classes.

I have said this over and over on this blog:  the passage of the DQSA has not closed compounding pharmacy doors as the compounding groups and industry predicted; if anything, it has caused an explosion with a compounding pharmacy found in most towns in America and in some places there are more than any possible demand for such compounds.