Compounding Pharmacies Update
Posted on: October 30th, 2013 by Dr. Dale Rubenstein
Here’s the latest on the compounding pharmacy issue:
I spoke to the pharmacist at one of our local pharmacies (whom we’ve been dealing with for 20 years), and apparently the ruling is from FDA setting national and not just state regulations.
For medications that have good documentation (he specifically mentioned methimazole, metronidazole and prednisolone), we can prescribe and they can compound as we have been doing. Once we know that the cat is on a proper dose, we script enough so that the medicine won’t expire but a larger bottle minimizes cost/ml as well as fewer shipping charges to you.
Unfortunately, with other medications, there are two choices and neither is ideal.
A) They can compound in an oil-base for up to 6 month-supply, but cats generally don’t like the taste as well as with water-based liquid.
B) They can formulate the same water-based medication you’ve been using but can only do a 14-day supply at a time. This greatly increases cost/ml to you as well as more shipping fees.
This is so frustrating because the original issue regarded sterile medications used for IV injections and had nothing to do with oral liquid preparations. And, the wording now includes veterinarians and other health providers doing their own compounding, which we’re not asking (or licensed or trained) to do!
We will keep you posted, and, if anyone has contacts at USP or FDA, please let us know!