Compounding pharmacies rise in popularity but bring questions about safety

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/compounding-pharmacies-rise-in-popularity-but-bring-questions-about-safety/2012/10/13/e87f8cc2-14a0-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_story.html

Pharmacy compounding, the mixing of drugs for individual patients, was once a quaint activity depicted on drug-store calendars from the 1950s. It has roared back in the 21st century, driven by the rise of out-of-hospital surgical care, the high prices and shortages of drugs, and the real or imagined benefit of “personalized medicine.”

Today, nearly every place medical care occurs — hospitals, doctor’s offices, home-health companies — now gets at least some of its drugs in forms that aren’t available off the shelf from pharmaceutical houses.


The practice burst into the national spotlight this month when cases of a rare brain infection, widely scattered across the country, were linked to a drug mixed by a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. As of Saturday, 198 illnesses and 15 deaths had been reported from 13 states.

Hospital pharmacists no longer compound drugs just for premature infants or patients with unusual conditions. Corner druggists see compounding as a more lucrative and interesting job than bagging blister-pack prescriptions. Chain drug stores are getting into the business. And entrepreneurs are taking up mortar and pestle to meet the demand, one of them being the New England Compounding Center, which is at the middle of the current outbreak.