Medical, dental, podiatric, and veterinary health care practitioners and patients in the Centennial State might benefit from the services of a Colorado compounding pharmacy when pharmaceutical compliance issues arise. Compounding is the extemporaneous preparation of customized medications by prescription order, tailor made to suit individual patient needs. While manufactured drugs address the pharmacotherapy needs of most patients, sometimes medications need tweaking for patients who cannot or will not take the drug of choice in its commercially available form. And a Colorado compounding pharmacy can help to make those adjustments.

What factors working singularly or in combination can contribute to patient dosing difficulties? The medication might be unpalatable with an undesirable flavor, scent, color, and/or texture. Or the route of administration could be problematic, requiring a tweak or re-routing altogether. Sometimes the commercial market does not offer the strength needed for the patient, and dividing unscored tablets can yield inaccurate doses. Lurking among the inactive ingredients may be an agent that further irritates a patient’s condition or induces an allergic response. And perhaps the biggest compliance factor since the economic downturn is drug shortages – the inability to procure the pharmaceutical of choice on the commercial market. A Colorado pharmacy that specializes in compounding may be able to help in these instances.

Animal health care practitioners encounter a wide array of patient dosing difficulties and can contact a Colorado veterinary pharmacy that specializes in compounding for tailor-made medications. Cats are notorious for their pharmaceutical noncompliance and may benefit from flavored liquid medications or transdermal gels rather than tablets if they are hard to pill. Pocket pets, toy dogs, and small birds may need a dose much smaller than commercially available and might benefit from a compounded medication in a customized strength. Further, animal health medications and surgical pharmaceutical agents figure heavily on the back-order and discontinuation lists. Veterinarians can contact a veterinary compounding pharmacy to see if they can compound the drug of choice while off market.

Drug shortages also impact human pediatric health care. Pediatricians can contact a Colorado pharmacist who specializes in compounding to see if the pharmaceutical of choice can be produced by prescription order while it is on back-order or manufacturer discontinued. Palatability and route-of-administration issues arise often in children’s health care, and a compounding pharmacy might be able to provide a tailor-made transdermal gel, rectal suppository, or flavored liquid medication that the patient will tolerate. Allergens and irritants among the inactive ingredients could also be problematic for children, so pediatricians can contact a compounding pharmacy to see if reformulation is possible.

These are just a handful among thousands of examples of how a compounding pharmacy might be able to help human and veterinary health care practitioners to close pharmaceutical compliance gaps. A specially trained pharmacist  — drawing upon professional compounding references, operating in compliance with federal and state regulations and industry standard operating procedures, and consulting in a triad relationship with practitioner and patient – can advise as to the parameters of a customized drug that might better fit individual patient needs. Such adjustments could include palatability change, delivery tweaking or re-routing, a customized strength, reformulation without allergens or irritants, and/or production of an off-market but FDA-approved pharmaceutical. When the desired health care outcome seems elusive due to dosing difficulties, a Colorado compounding pharmacy stands ready to assist veterinarians, dentists, podiatrists, and human medical practitioners and patients in the Centennial State.