What Are Compounded Medications? What Do Compounding Pharmacies Do in Ontario?
Compounding Medication Importance
Having the correct type of medication at the correct dose is crucial for achieving good health. This is why physicians and medical professionals work hard to provide the right prescription for all patients. Before your medical team arrives at the final decision to prescribe, many considerations go into the process, including your health condition, comorbidities, history, and allergies.
If you cannot find a medicine mixture that matches with a commercially available medicine, your doctor may recommend you take personalized medication. What is this, and what does it mean to you?
Keep on reading to find out.
Understanding Compounding Medication
In simple terms, compounding medication is a drug that has been specifically prepared and mixed for you, based on what your doctor recommended. There are specified amounts allotted for every active ingredient, similar to how you would handle baking a cake.
You can use compounding medication for various illnesses—most commonly, they are recommended for skin problems, thyroid issues, hormonal disorders, and pain management.
Compounded Medication vs. Commercial Medicine
There are two main categories of medication you may get a prescription for.
First, commercially available medication refers to medicine manufactured and dispensed by various companies after receiving approval from regulating authorities. Once the medication has been reviewed to be safe and effective, you can get it from your local pharmacy or virtual pharmacy.
On the other hand, specialized pharmacies prepare compounded medications for patients who require special doses or mixtures.
How Compounding Medication Works
Compounding can be described as the act of developing pharmaceutical-grade medications when what’s commercially available can’t help patients in need. It may be because of the incompatibility with the formulation or dosage of an existing medicine. Sometimes, it can also be due to the discontinuation of formerly working drugs.
Compounding can be either one or more of the following processes—preparing, mixing, labelling, and altering medications. For instance, compounding can be:
- Adding flavour to medicines for children
- Changing the formula to remove an allergen
- Adjusting the form of drugs, like turning a pill into a liquid
- Changing the dosage of a medication
- Make a drug into a topical cream or a transdermal formula
What Are Compounding Pharmacies?
Though compounding might seem a lot like drug manufacturing, they are not the same. Manufacturing strictly follows what is approved and is produced for a vast majority of patients.
On the other hand, pharmaceutical compounding has a more specific approach. It works with a prescription from a medical doctor and occurs under the guidance of a licensed pharmacist.
Though most pharmacies across Canada can offer various compounding forms, only a certified compounding pharmacy has the infrastructure and equipment to handle custom formulations for every unique need. They can provide sterile formulations like intramuscular injections and non-sterile formulations like creams, gels, and pills.
Do I Need Compounding Medication?
Compounding medication offers solutions to patients with specific needs and limitations. So, it’s something to consider if you keep encountering issues with the current medication you are taking, and you believe you could do well with compounding drugs.
Should you feel like the current medication you are on from your local pharmacy is not working for your health issues, talk to your care provider about switching to a compounding pharmacy. Sunshine Drugs Family of Pharmacies, offers compounding at select locations across Ontario. Visit one of our 15 retail locations across Ontario to discuss your options.