What To Know About Ocala Compounding Pharmacy

By Virginia Olson


Pharmaceutical compounding refers to the science by which personalized medications are prepared. The process is done by a licensed pharmacist, and it involves combining, mixing, or altering ingredients in a drug so that the created medication is tailored to meet the particular needs of a person. Prescription for compounded medication must be made by a licensed physician. Any Ocala compounding pharmacy is licensed and certified by the state and federal authorities to engage in the business of preparing medicines.

For a process to be referred to as compounding, two or several drugs must be combined together. There are several reasons why it may be necessary to compound medication for a patient. First, medication may need to be compounded because the specific medical needs of a patient cannot be met by conventional medicine on the market. Such a situation may arise where a patient is allergic to certain elements included in conventional medication.

Compounded medications are usually customized to accommodate the specific needs of patients. As such, they are not approved by the FDA. That implies that the FDA does not verify the effectiveness of safety of the drugs. The safety and effectiveness of the drugs relies on the drug approval process to ensure that the medications meet quality standards enforced by the federal government.

Normally, state boards of pharmacies are responsible for ensuring that state-licensed pharmacies are in compliance with compounding standards in their operations. Even with that, federal authorities still retain some level of influence over the facilities and their operations. Outsourcing facilities are regulated by federal authorities in a more stricter way. They are inspected frequently on a risk-based schedule to ensure compliance with standards.

The products, services, and operations in these facilities have various risks associated with them. These risks are often not compliant with federal standards of quality. For starters, drugs have been reported to be produced using poor quality practices. This results in contaminated, sub-potent, super-potent, or adulterated drugs. Another major source of risk is the fact that people tend to prefer custom drugs over FDA-approved alternatives.

Because of advancements in technology, pharmacists are now able to produce safer and more affective medications with a high level of precision. Many technological advancements have occurred in this field, which have led to standardization and revolution of several processes used in the making of drugs. Today, many pharmacies can compound drugs to meet specific strength, flavor, dosage, and ingredient requirements.

Some years back, compounding was the mode of producing all kinds of prescribed medications. However, with the emergence of mass production in the 50s and 60s, this changed. Mass production changed the roles played by pharmacists of preparing medications to dispensing manufactured drugs. The training of pharmacists in drug preparation was limited almost to a point of extinction.

However, mass production, as always, did not meet the needs of all patients. There were some patients who still needed customized drugs, and so, compounding pharmacies continued to exist. Today, it is a requirement for a licensed pharmacist to be on-site at any pharmacy involved in the preparation and dispensation of medications.




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