What is Pharmacy Compounding?

Pioneer Health Center started as a compounding-only pharmacy back in 2002, and while not a new concept, many people aren’t familiar with what it is exactly. While conventional pharmacy takes a one-size-fits-all approach to medicine, pharmacy compounding takes into account an individual’s unique requirements and is able to actually customize medication for a person to suit their needs. This singular approach to medicine is what drew our team to compounding many decades ago, and in our 15 years of prior conventional pharmacy experience, we never saw the positive results that we’re seeing with patients today.

As the Professional Compounding Center of America (PCCA) explains it, “Pharmacy compounding is the art and science of preparing personalized medications for patients. Compounded medications are made based on a practitioner’s prescription in which individual ingredients are mixed together in the exact strength and dosage form required by the patient.” Put more simply, our goal is to improve the benefit of a medication while reducing the risk of side effects.​

Pharmacy Compounding is Patient-Specific-
Pharmacy compounding makes it possible for a medication to be completely customized to meet an individual’s needs — no matter how complex. Every person has a slightly different metabolism, and this can determine how much or little of an ingredient they can tolerate. For example, we develop many bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) creams for both men and women, but we first need to collaborate with a practitioner in order to determine which hormones and at which strength each individual can benefit from by running various hormone tests. Once we know exactly where the patient needs support, we can then compound a specific medication for them. Not knowing this information can hinder patient progress, which is why compounding is especially applicable in scenarios like BHRT.

Compounding also enables us to make medications free from the most common problematic ingredients like dairy, gluten, soy, or eggs, so we can reduce or eliminate common adverse effects and maximize the effectiveness of a medicine. We can also customize the way in which a medication will be delivered depending on how the patient can take it. For example, many medications can be compounded into an easily administered flavored suspension for babies. We can also create troches, lollipops, gummies, creams, nasal sprays, and even specially flavored medicines for pets to accommodate even the most unique needs.

Pharmacy Compounding Requires a Triad-
Pharmacy compounding requires a tight-knit partnership between a patient, practitioner, and compounding pharmacist. We like to call this the “triad”. This allow us to go beyond the “one-size-fits-all” model of conventional medicine to build customized therapies based on a patient’s health history, unique metabolism, and needs. Working with both a practitioner and patient, we can uncover what those exact needs are so that we can greatly increase the chances that a medication will work.

At Pioneer Health Center, we work alongside many of our prescribing practitioners and are available to our patients if there are ever any questions about a prescription or its usage, because we genuinely care about successful clinical outcomes. A regional pharmacy, we care about the well-being of our community and it’s our passion to see them feel better.

Pharmacy Compounding is personalized medicine. When medically necessary, medications can be incredibly helpful in treating both acute and complex conditions in both humans and animals. For example, one area we specialize in is compounding medications for pain management. Upon a complete health assessment, we can pinpoint the type or types of pain a patient is experiencing, which allows us to work with patients and practitioners to choose the most appropriate medicines to be used for transdermal therapy.

This entire process is designed to reduce the risk of side effects while increasing the amount of pain relief. And here at our compounding pharmacy in Connecticut, every ingredient is pure, pharmaceutical grade, and from FDA regulated facilities. This allows us to choose the very best ingredients for our patients.  Our standards at Pioneer Health Compounding Pharmacy are among the highest in the industry using some of the most progressive equipment and process validation including outside potency verification.

Come visit us today at our store location in Vernon, CT or book an appointment to talk about how we can help you or your patients receive customized and safe medications.