Village Compounding Pharmacy: Our customers are our priority

Compounding: The History

 

Compounding is inherent on pharmacy practice. It is the birthright of the profession. The practice of preparing medications dates back to biblical times.

In modern times, the roles and responsibilities of pharmacists have coincided with the industrial revolution and the changes in health care. In the 1930's and 1940's, approximately 60 percent of all medications dispensed were compounded. During the 1950's and 1960's, with the advent of manufacturing, compounded weaned. Pharmacists were thankful for the opportunity to fill prescriptions premade from the manufacturers. It was during this time that the role of the pharmacists went from that of a compounder, preparing medications from scratch, to that of a dispenser of the manufactured dosage form. Pharmacists refer to their dispensing duties as, "counting, pouring, licking and sticking."

In the 1980's, 1990's, and now, physicians and patients are again realizing the benefits of individualized or unique dosage forms for specific patient needs.

No other health care professional has studied chemical compatibilities and can prepare dosage forms. Even when modern scientific technologies have produced new chemical entities, the ability of the pharmacist to combine one or more chemicals into a new preparation or process the existing dosage form into one that is better suited to the patient's needs, has remained the domain of the pharmacist.

Because every patient differs and has different needs, a compounding pharmacy will always have an essential practice of the profession.

"Twenty-five years from now, technology will have propelled pharmacists back to the future of compounding and personalized care." Jerome Halperin, executive director, United States Pharmacopoeial Convention, Inc.