Compounding

One of the neat things about my job is the opportunity to meet people with fascinating stories and occupations. The other day I got to chat with a pharmacist who has two locations. His second location is used to do "compounding" of drugs. As his website describes, "Pharmacy compounding combines an ageless art with medical knowledge and technology to prepare customized medications to meet each patient’s needs. Prior to medications being produced in mass quantities by pharmaceutical manufacturers, compounding was the standard means of providing prescription medication. Today, instead of your pharmacist being a dispenser of manufactured strengths and dosage forms, the pharmacist is able to meet a patient’s specific needs and avoid the “one size fits all” approach."
Here are some of the reasons to use compounding:
*Bio-Identical Hormones which are most commonly connected to the symptoms of menopause.
*Your pet’s medication in the best strength, form, and flavor for them. What works for an 80 lb. Golden Retriever would be far too much for a little Yorkie.
*“Gummies” and Lollipops for the pediatric group! Just think – no more wasting medicine when a cranky patient spits it out…we have lots of flavors too.
*Medications free of problem-causing additives like dyes, sugar, lactose, or alcohol.
*Anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving medications as a topical preparation that can be absorbed through the skin. This eliminates the gastrointestinal side effects commonly experienced by these patients.
*Flavored oral suspension for those that have troubling swallowing a capsule.
*Medications that are not commercially available or have been discontinued.

There are so many additives in prescription drugs and due to the drugs having to pass through the liver first, the dosages are so much higher than if you create a topical or oral suspension type formula. For animals this is really critical because the dosages are like 100x stronger than they need to be without all of the harm and toxic build-up in their organs. A little dab of cream applied to the inside of a cat's ear can have the same benefits, without nasty side affects.

It was really fascinating talking to this guy about his practice and the health care industry in general. The Health Care legislature has affected small town pharmacists, like him, by controlling the amount he can make on prescriptions although it doesn't affect how much the middle man is making. He said that is why so many small time pharmacists are going out of business but that there is some new legislation (I presume) on the horizon that may help. I learned a lot about his business and enjoyed learning about it.

In other news, we are finishing up in Brighton, CO. Will leave here Wednesday and go get our rig's Mor-Ryde suspension aligned and then we will head to Colorado Springs. Our schedule is constantly evolving....LOL. After Colorado Springs, we go to Gunnison, CO.

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! We've already kicked ours off with grilled veggies and veggie burgers. Yum !! Not sure what is in store for the rest of the weekend...we'll let you know what we come up with.