Many compounding pharmacies have been providing services for 15 years or more, but it wasn’t until the advent of Bio-Identical Hormone Treatment (BHRT), that compounding pharmacies became hugely popular with the general public.

Because the chemical structure of Bio-Identical Hormones (“BHRT”) is exactly equivalent to the hormones an individual body produces, BHRT must be custom-formulated for each patient. While this is more costly than the traditional synthetic hormone replacement, recent findings of the “Women’s Health Initiative” (WHI), an extensive study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that synthetic hormones pose a serious health risk to women. Not so with BHRT compounds. The findings report that the solution is to replace the synthetics with BHRT, which restores the body’s hormone balance at the cellular level, identical to what the body no longer produces in effective quantities on its own.

BHRT may have put compounding pharmacies on the map, but many people don’t fully understand how they differ from traditional pharmacies, and how they can differ from one another.

Generally speaking, traditional pharmacies match patients to prescriptions; a physician diagnoses a patient’s problem and finds the pharmaceutical that’s the best match. Compounding pharmacies match prescription requirements to individual patient needs, custom formulating FDA-approved chemicals to fit the unique need of the patient, according to the attending physician’s direction. This is done for BHRT and for many other treatments as well, including Urology (erectile dysfunction and sexual health), Pain Management (injectibles and transdermals), Veterinarian, Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Lactation, Pediatrics and many, many others.

For example, compounding might be done for medically necessary reasons, such as to change the form of the medication from a solid pill to a liquid; to avoid a non-essential ingredient that the patient is allergic to; or to obtain the exact dose needed. It may also be done for voluntary reasons, such as adding favorite flavors to a medication.

Some benefits of prescription compounding include:

• Strengths not commercially available. Compounding assures all patients that they can have the precise dose they need.
• Form not commercially available. Compounding allows the best drug delivery system options for patient and physician. Oral, injection, suppository, or transdermal routes are all possible. Also, compounding pharmacies can provide many drugs not currently manufactured or in dosage forms not currently available.
• Improve or eliminate undesirable flavors by substituting custom-made flavors that kids love. Flavoring can be used in pet medications as well.
• Changing the usual route of administration. For instance, a flavored sublingual (under the tongue lozenge) for a hard-to-swallow pill or a transdermal cream in place of injections.
• Eliminate preservatives, dyes, and potential allergens. People with asthma or hypoallergenic patients will benefit from prescriptions that are compounded preservative-free or dye-free or that use alternative “fillers.”
• Sugar intolerance. Compounded syrups with non-caloric sweeteners help diabetics control blood glucose.
• Discontinued drugs. Occasionally, drug companies discontinue production of effective drugs which are no longer profitable to them. If this happens, compounding pharmacists can often duplicate that formula.

There are differences in compounding pharmacies: some are compounding only, others are primarily traditional pharmacies with a compounding component. Some focus on serving patients, while others serve not only patients, but physicians and specialty care practices as well. Some offer limited compounding, while others are able to compound practically any medication, including commercially unavailable drugs and drugs that are unavailable due to a shortage.

Largely thanks to BHRT, consumers now have a breadth of choices when it comes to their pharmaceutical needs. With more compounding pharmacies of all sorts opening, consumer can find comprehensive, accessible options, close to home.

Serving customers since 1995, Bryce Rx Laboratories, Inc. is a licensed pharmacy practice that specializes in the compounding of medications. Founder and owner Robert P. Giuliano, MS, RPH, ABDP, was previously the Pharmacy Director for two New York City teaching hospitals, as well as the founder of United States Home Health Care Company, a home IV/nursing pharmacy, before starting Bryce. Bryce works extensively with specialty care practices and institutions, with a focus on the compounding of all sterile parenternal formulations (including preservative-free and/or preserved injectables, irrigating solutions, ophthalmics, nasal sprays, etc.)                                                                                                                         

Bryce is located at 30 Buxton Farms Road (Exit 35 off the Merritt Parkway), Suite 110, in Stamford, Connecticut. Phone: 800 798 7279. Fax: 866 792 7923; www.brycerx.com. We offer free patient consultations.