Drug shortages remain a serious concern and continue to grow. Millions of Americans have to worry about whether their medicine could be the next one to go into shortage.
Compounded drugs can be used in two situations. One is when an FDA-approved medication is not appropriate for a patient (like when a patient has allergies to certain ingredients, needs a different dosage form or strength, etc). The other situation is when the FDA-approved medication is not accessible, as in the case of shortages. When an FDA-approved drug is listed as "currently in shortage" on the FDA's drug shortage list, compounding pharmacies are allowed to create copies of those products.
You may have heard about the recent severe nationwide shortage of IV solution bags due to hurricanes crippling production facilities.
Hospitals had to save IV bags for the most critical patients, and others had to reschedule or postpone certain surgeries due to the lack of supply. Dialysis and cancer patients were also at risk when supplies were unavailable.
Compounding pharmacies are able to help in these types of situations to ease some of the strain on the supply chain, so people can continue their therapy.
Pharmacist advocates have met with their elected representatives and will continue to do so in order to help as many patients as possible. Compounding advocacy groups have also communicated their concerns directly to the FDA in order to maintain patient access to the medications they need. If you, or a loved one, has been helped or supported by compounding, we would like to take the opportunity to ask you to consider writing a testimonial regarding your experience. The more voices that speak, the more we can be heard working together.
We don’t know when the next emergency or drug shortage will happen. Protecting access to compounded therapies is extremely important. When treating someone, prescribers need to have every therapy option available in their toolbox to best care for that person — including compounded therapies.
By Kimberly Hansen, RPh, FAPC