What is Compounding?

Increasingly, medical professionals and pharmacists are finding the need to personalize medications that will meet the unique needs of individual patients. This increased need has led to the popular practice of pharmacy compounding.

What is Pharmacy Compounding?

In short, pharmacy compounding is the art and science of preparing these personalized medications for individual patients. These compounds are typically made from scratch using individual ingredients that are then mixed together to create the exact strength and dosage of medication required by the patient.

By identifying individual ingredients and tailoring to exact dosage specifications, pharmacists are able to work more closely with the patient, as well as the prescriber, to customize a medication that will meet the patient’s specific needs.

The History of Compounding

Historically, almost all prescriptions were compounded before the advent of mass drug manufacturing in the 1950s and 60s. However, with this development, compounding decreased rapidly during these two decades.

This change significantly impacted the pharmacist’s prior role as the primary preparer of patient’s medications. After the 1950s and 60s, the pharmacist became the dispenser of already manufactured dosage forms, and most pharmacists entering the profession were no longer trained to compound medications.

Despite the increased speed and efficiency with which this new system has been able to disseminate medications to patients in need, this “one-size-fits-all” approach has been far from perfect. As one might expect, standardization of mass-produced medications means that some patients can no longer find compounds that meet their unique health needs.

Shifting Back to Personalized Medications

Recently, the medical industry has seen a significant resurgence of the practice of compounding. Many patients will always have the need for customized medications, and we are continually realizing the benefits of designing patient-specific compounds.

Through the use of modern technology, new research findings, and innovative compounding techniques, were are once again giving the pharmacist the increased ability to tailor custom medications to meet patients’ specific healthy needs.

Trained, experienced pharmacists are capable of personalizing medicines for patients that require specific medication strengths, dosage forms, flavours, or additional ingredients that might be excluded from other, mass-produced medications due to common allergies or other sensitivities.

Contact Medicine Shoppe Sunridge Today!

At Medicine Shoppe Sunridge, we can formulate highly personalized products, dosages, and medications that will fit your unique, individual needs. We understand that some of the most common, mass-produced medications are not adequate, or even tolerable for some patients.

This is why, with your primary care physician’s consent, we will work with you to change the strength of a prescribed medication, alter its form to make it more easily ingestible, or add natural flavour to make your medication more palatable, which can be especially useful for children. If you’re interested in compounding medications, give the professional team at Medicine Shoppe Sunridge a call at 403.291.0076 today!