Saturday 30 March 2019

Useful And Essential Facts About Compounding Pharmacy In Ocala FL

By Douglas Murray


Drug compounding is a procedure for producing a specific pharmaceutical drug by licensed pharmacist. These drugs are made specifically to meet certain needs of a client that would otherwise be unattainable by commercially available drugs. The patient requiring the drug could be an animal or human. The procedure involves many activities including mixing, assembling, preparing, packaging and labelling. This is worth knowing about Compounding pharmacy in Ocala FL.

Pharmaceutical preparation is carried out or supervised by a licensed pharmacist pursuant to a prescription from a medical practitioner. The pharmacist must be licensed by the state board. On the other hand, manufacturing of drugs can only be done after being approved by the FDA. Before any drug goes into production, it must be investigated and tested thoroughly by the FDA to ensure that it is effective and safe for use.

As such, manufacturing requires FDA approval, while compounding requires only state board approval. Manufacturing is also done on a larger scale because the drugs are meant for commercial use. After manufacturing, the drugs are sold to health care practitioner, hospitals, and pharmacies among others for retailing to end consumers. The entities to whom manufactured drugs are sold must be authorized by federal and state laws to engage in such business.

Compounded drugs cannot be sold to other entities in order to be distributed to end consumers. In fact, the drugs are not supposed to be commercialized. They are supposed to be produced for a specific patient or patients in exact dosage. The surplus that remains cannot be sold to other patients or commercialized because it is illegal.

Some kind of compounding activity is carried out by most pharmacies. For effective production of compounded medicine to occur, a pharmacy should make proper investment in acquiring equipment and providing staff with training. The employees in these pharmacies should be well trained and this can only be achieved in medical schools. Medical trainees can opt to specialize in compounding while still undergoing training so as to pursue this path in their careers.

The required tools for compounding include graduated cylinders, which are used to measure liquids. A pestle and a mortar are used for grinding ingredients. The materials are mixed using spatulas. Weighing scales are employed in weighing ingredients to achieve correct proportions. This procedure is carried out atop ointment slabs. All drug forms are produced, including ointments, creams, capsules and liquids. These may be swallowed, injected into muscles or blood or even applied on the skin.

United States has the largest number of pharmacies that deal with compounded drugs in the world. There are approximately 56000 such pharmacies in the United States. Out of these, 7500 have specialized in compounding. This implies that compounding makes the largest proportion of their activities. It is therefore easy for one to access compounded drugs.

It is mandatory for a patient to obtain a prescription from a licensed doctor before they can buy compounded medicine. This is a requirement that is meant to protect consumers and to prevent abuse of the industry. A pharmacist is not supposed to compound drugs to patients without verifying the validity of the prescription provided.




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