Response to Wall St. Journal Article - 3/15/04

Wall Street Journal Article Presents Unfair View of Compounding

A recent Wall Street Journal article (Feb. 27), entitled "As Druggists Mix Customized Brews, FDA Raises Alarm," presents a view of compounding pharmacies that skates by the substantial benefits of the industry while sensationalizing regulatory issues.

As the PCCA (Professional Compounding Centers of America) has correctly pointed out, compounding was once the only way that medications were prepared. In 1938, when the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was passed, very few final dosage forms were available, and pharmacists compounded more than 250 million prescriptions annually. Nearly all of those prescriptions were compounded from bulk chemicals.

At College Pharmacy, we work closely with your health care provider to prepare products for custom, individualized therapy. Unlike international pharmaceutical companies motivated by mass-market profit, compounding pharmacies are in the business of making you well. Compounded medications fill the gaps and make drugs that are no longer commercially available, drugs no longer developed by the pharmaceutical industry for economic reasons, preparations with poor stability, and products that compensate for drug shortages.

Using state-of-the-art technology, our registered pharmacists compound prescriptions from pure, pharmaceutical-grade raw materials. All ingredients of compounds come from manufacturers or repackagers who must be FDA registered and meet FDA specifications for safety and purity. All pharmacists are regulated and licensed by the state pharmacy boards in each state, just as states regulate and license doctors and other health care providers. Compounding pharmacists also attend continuing education courses throughout the year to stay abreast of the latest developments in science and technology.

College Pharmacy's quality control standards are among the best in the industry. Most pharmacies are not equipped with adequate personnel or equipment like hoods and clean rooms. We have a Class 100 clean room that enables our technicians to produce the highest quality sterile products, and our internal quality control team randomly selects compounded medications for independent inspection for quality and sterility.

College Pharmacy is proud to be among the more than 20,000 community compounding pharmacists providing 100,000 compounded medicines daily to patients, in partnership with their health care providers. We allow doctors and patients to choose the drug, route of administration, and dosage that will optimize treatment and provide enhanced quality of life.

For more information, please email us at info@collegepharmacy.com.

Reprinted with my thanks to master compounder and pharmacist, Tom Bader, the President of College Pharmacy.

Dr. J