More and more doctors are recommending ‘compounding pharmacies’ to their patients, and at PenCol Specialty Pharmacy we are getting more and more calls from their patients asking, “What IS compounding?” We love hearing this question because it gives us a chance to explain just how many ways we can provide individualized pharmacy care.

Simply put – compounding is a method of preparing medications to meet individual and unique doctor/patient needs.

It is the opposite of the one-size-fits-all, take it or leave it experience you receive at a traditional pharmacy. You are not just like everyone else to us; your doctor understands that and therefore wants you to have customized medicines that better meet your needs. And we’re here to help make that happen.

It is interesting to note that compounding used to be the standard means of providing prescription medications before drugs began to be produced in mass quantities by pharmaceutical manufacturers. The demand for professional compounding has increased as healthcare professionals and patients realize that the limited number of strengths and dosage forms that are commercially available are unable to meet the unique needs of many patients.

Compounding can also play a major role in health care because of our ability to help solve challenging patient problems. One example that we see a lot of is the patient who is allergic to commonly used fillers, dyes, binders, and other additives that are used in mass-produced medications. In this case, we can compound many of the needed medications without these additives. Many times, prescribed medications are only available in limited strengths or dosages. With compounding, we can make the individualized prescribed strength and dosage that the doctor prescribes and the patient needs.

Working with physicians, PenCol pharmacists are continually providing solutions to medication problems, meeting patient needs, and helping to provide an improved quality of life – for our people patients, and our animal friends.