In today’s time, a majority of medicines come directly from big pharmaceutical organizations. After the discovery of penicillin, this trend has started. With that, the modern marketing techniques pertaining to drug manufacturing has emerged. Also the controlling of production of drugs. Prior to the discovery of penicillin, compounding was the only option for the production of the drugs. Pharmacists used to make medicines based on the doctor’s prescription. Compounding is defined as the production of drugs in a small batch for small numbers of patients. Situations have been found that a traditional pharmacy. failed to provide a particular type of medicines prescribed by doctors and jeopardized the future of compounding pharmacies.
A situation of that kind provides medication for following conditions such as adrenal fatigue, autism, andropause, bio-identical hormones, dermatology, dentistry, pain management, pediatrics, palliative, prescription, podiatry, thyroid hormones, sports, veterinary and other wound care. With all these problems, the demand for compounding pharmacies is growing. Moreover, it would also be hard to give an accurate number of compounding pharmacies in the USA.
How to Find Compounding Pharmacies?
Many patients find really hard to locate a local pharmacy. Some patients also contact their health insurance providers to get the contact of the local pharmacy. Sometimes, doctors also refer patients to compounding pharmacies.
There are two major directories – one in the U.S. and the second one delivers information about compounding pharmacies across the world. These are –
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PCCA (Professional Compounding Centers of America)
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IACP (International Academy of Compounding Pharmacies)
Data revealed by IACP that only 1%-3% of all prescriptions dispensed in the USA are compounded. Due to the aging of baby boomers in the USA, the demand for compounding medicines is also growing at a rapid pace and also more patients are opting for compounding medicines in the present and going to opt for in near future.
There are many online directories with more compounding pharmacies listed on the online. These websites offer a plethora of information including online maps, websites and the type of medicine and contact phone numbers. These websites allow patients to contact the compounding pharmacies. Through this website, you can also send prescriptions online. Many directories come with mobile apps that indicate pharmacies location and allow patients to send prescriptions.
Compounding pharmacies are going to stay here. The market share is also getting bigger in each day. These pharmacies are doing exceptionally good in helping patients to get their required drugs or medicines.
According to the IACP, in the USA, currently, there are over 56,000 community-based compounding pharmacies, of which a half of them directly offer their service to local patients and doctors. Around 7,500 pharmacies have the specialization in offering “Advanced Compounding Services” ( the term coined by the IACP). Approximately, 3,000 compounding pharmacies are into making sterile products.
Who Regulates Compounding Pharmacies?
The drugs produced by compounding pharmacies are regulated by FDA. But there are some states in the USA that also regulate many compounding pharmacies. The role of the FDA is to check the “integrity of drugs”. However, as the compounding pharmacies are getting bigger and better, some pharmacies start to act like small drug manufacturers. The role and responsibility of an organization like FDA are to tackle this type of situations. Along with the compounding pharmacies spread all across the USA, the onus is also on the patients’ and relatives of patients’ shoulders to have a clear idea about the functioning of compounding pharmacies before visiting one.
