Compounding was and is all about personalization. Historically, Compounding was the method used to prepare medication before the mass production of drugs. If you went to a pharmacy or apothecary, you could speak to a pharmacist about them crafting something specific for you. This is where the traditional mortar and pestle became so synonymous with pharmacy as pharmacists used these tools to grind materials together to compound personalized medication for an individual.
Compounding in the modern sense isn’t far off the principles learnt many years ago. As mentioned, the key similarity is that compounding now is still all about personalization. The main difference of course is that modern techniques and modern raw materials are now used all in line with modern medicine, with the intention of helping a patient as best as possible.
Personalization is a key principle that mass drug production misses. In many cases there will be a requirement for a patient to take a specific dose of something currently not available. There are many situations where mass produced medicines do not suit everyone, for example there might be a certain ingredient that a patient has a problem with, so a Compounding Pharmacist can produce a version that is free of additives (such as fillers, flow agents, lubricants, colours, flavours, preservatives). Equally, a patient might require more ingredients in a single product which can be produced in compounding. That’s specifically useful for someone who might be required to take many drugs a day. Even children can benefit from compounding, often there are products that taste bad for a child, it’s possible to compound a product for a child that tastes better!
At CompoundLabs we use specialized equipment that helps us accurately weigh and blend the specific ingredients into a precise prescription pharmaceutical product required for a patient. On occasion we do still use a mortar and pestle too just like pharmacies did a long time ago (surprisingly this is still a useful technique for grinding up small amounts of pharmaceutical ingredients). We also control our compounding environment with filtered air via a high-quality air conditioning system. Equally we have strict procedures around process to ensure a top-quality product is made – we aren’t your ordinary pharmacy! This is all to ensure that we provide our patients with high quality medicines to help them manage their health. As it’s so important in many cases that doses are personalized, it means that the right skills, technology and processes need to be in place to ensure that a personalized product is made correctly.
If you think you or your patients (if you are a practitioner) could benefit from compounding medications please feel free to get in touch, we’d be more than happy to help you with your questions.
For more information about CompoundLabs and how we make our products click here: https://compoundlabs.co.nz/pages/about-us