Compounding Pharmacy

      Compounding pharmacy is an area of pharmacy that I feel has been often times over looked.  Despite the fact that compounding pharmacy is rarely thought of, its importance in patient care is just as essential as it ever was in individualized therapy.  While researching the topic I came across a perfect definition by the Food and Drug Administration, defining compounding pharmacy as: “… a practice in which a licensed pharmacist combines, mixes, or alters ingredients in response to a prescription to create a medication tailored to the medical needs of an individual patient.”  Now let’s take a closer look into the benefits of utilizing compounding pharmacy.  According to the FDA, 30,000,000 drugs are compounded in the United States each year.  This area of pharmacy is used when a patient is unable to use a mass produced drug available on the market, requiring a unique ingredient specific therapy.  This can be useful for patients with certain allergies, need a certain drug concentration, or cannot tolerate a conventional prescription medication.  Although compounded drugs can be lifesaving and essential to patient well- being, it does not come without its risks.  Compounded products are not FDA approved, with that, compounded ingredients run the risk of becoming contaminated or improperly made if not compounded correctly.  Overall, compounding pharmacy is a safe and beneficial area of pharmacy that should only be used when conventional FDA approved medications are inappropriate for use.  This short video I found does an amazing job showing the structure, precautions, and equipment used in compounding pharmacies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhfwC6aRN0I check it out!

http://www.fda.gov/drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/PharmacyCompounding/default.htm

Pharmacists and Vaccines

     According to the World Health Organization, “A vaccine is a preparation of suspensions of killed or attenuated microorganisms, or products or derivatives of microorganisms, which are intended to produce immunity to a specific disease by stimulating the production of antibodies.”  Vaccines are the best way to prevent diseases, they not only protect the individual receiving the vaccine but also the community in which that person comes into contact with.  Today millions of lives have been saved because of vaccines and their function to prevent and control many infectious diseases.  In addition to saving lives, vaccines save time, resources, and money that would have otherwise been spent in treating a disease. 

     The benefits of vaccines have helped improve health and quality of life for many.  With that, efforts have been made to make immunizations more convenient and available to everyone within the community.  Today more and more pharmacists are becoming certified immunizers to help advance these efforts in making vaccinations easy and affordable to get.   Vaccine administration has only been recently a part of a pharmacist’s role.  According to the American Pharmacist Association, it was not until the 1994 when pharmacists started to train in immunization administration. Today, the types of vaccines pharmacists are allowed to administer are based on laws and regulations made by the state.   Pharmacies are a great way to stay up to date with vaccinations; pharmacists are not only immunizers but also a great resource to help keep patients informed to make the best health decisions.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/howvpd.htm

Vaccines. World Health Organizations Web site. www.who.int/topics/vaccines/en/

http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2010/January2010/FeatureFocusVaccinations