Compound Pharmacy: Help During a Drug Shortage

A compound pharmacy can help to relieve a drug shortage by creating specialized versions of pain medication from scratch ingredients. As recent as 2012, patients faced a drastic shortage of anesthetic drugs which put many at risk for surgery stoppage. Imagine trying to conduct a surgery without proper anesthetic. Even the most basic of operations can be turned into medieval torture and the worst nightmare for a patient under these circumstances. Fortunately, compounding pharmacies came to the rescue spectacularly adapting to the shortage of the anesthetic drugs with customized aesthetic compounds. This is direct evidence that compounding is the answer to the drug shortage situation globally.

Compound Pharmacy and Drug Shortages

Many people can relate to depending on certain drugs for survival. This includes ranges of immune suppressants for transplant patients, medications for cancer patients and AIDS patients. This brand of medicines will also include the drugs required by patients to manage their disease on a long-term basis. This includes diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s or Alzheimer’s which do not have a cure and depend on the medications for a semblance of life for the patients. Compounding pharmacies can create the drugs by proportionately mixing the active compounds in the prescribed dosages.

How a Compound Pharmacy Fixes Drug Shortages for Chronic Pain Medications                                         

Chronic pain is a severe disorder, which might be a symptom of a bigger disease, or it might be the disease itself. However, chronic pain management relies on regular medications to help the patient cope with various ranges of pain. Without the drug, patients can succumb to increasing durations of depression and can also lead to complete bed-ridden status. Compounding pharmacies can not only help fulfill drug shortages for drugs in this instance, but they can also alleviate the problem of drug dependency by changing the channels of the drug. Instead of standard pills or opioids, patients can obtain topical compounds that are better for pain management and do not cause addiction over long-term use.

A Compound Pharmacy Provides Cover for Out of Stock Medications

Sometimes productions of certain medications are discontinued if the manufacturers find they do not have a broader market or there are some discrepancies in the product for certain geographical locations. However, pulling the product from shelves all over the country can become a problem. The proportion of ingredients in these products might have suited certain patients perfectly, but for many others this isn’t the case. To combat this issue, patients can obtain a prescription for the same dosage of medications they used to have and have their compounding pharmacies customize it for them. Customization can also increase or decrease the potency of the drug depending on the needs of the patient. Thus, customization via compounding can offer better medications for patients while recovering from the drug shortage issue.