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Compounding vs. Manufacturing
Some pharmacy operations will continue to need to outsource product compounding, but it is important that they take steps to do so safely.
My colleague Jim Jorgenson has recently weighed in on the compounding vs. manufacturing issue with a thoughtful perspective in the American Journal of Pharmacy Benefits. He provides a good history on the issue. While acknowledging that compounding is a part of pharmacy practice and is still needed today, he offers his perspective on why pharmacy compounding has grown.
He focuses on the reality that some pharmacy operations will continue to need to outsource product compounding and suggests that the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Foundation’s Outsourcing Sterile Products Preparation: Contractor Assessment Tool and the ASHP Guidelines on Outsourcing Sterile Compounding Services provide useful recommendations on how to outsource pharmacy compounding safely.
I recommend a review of this commentary if you are in the pharmacy compounding business, either because you outsource that activity or because you yourself do pharmacy compounding.
