Custom Compounding Services | Sarasota Apothecary
Interested in transferring your prescriptions to a local pharmacy? Our pharmacy is located in Sarasota, FL and is a premier center of health for all. We take pride in our community and want to make sure your health is proactively looked after.
Custom Compounding Services: Personalized Medications Tailored to Your Needs
Many patients have unique health needs off-the-shelf, manufactured medications cannot meet. For these patients, personalized medications – prescribed by licensed practitioners and prepared by trained, licensed pharmacists – often are the only solution.
Working with a physician, a compounding pharmacist can prepare customized medications and meet the individual needs of children, adults, and animals:
- When required medications unavailable from pharmaceutical companies
- When the patient is allergic to certain preservatives, dyes, or binders in available off-the-shelf medications
- When treatment requires tailored dosage strengths (for example, an infant)
- When a pharmacist can combine several medications to increase compliance
- When a patient cannot ingest the medication in its commercially available form
- When medications require flavor additives to make them more palatable for patients
Sarasota Apothecary Compounding
Sarasota Apothecary is a non-sterile compounding pharmacy specializing in topical creams and gels, oral capsules, vaginal or rectal suppositories, troches, nasal rinses and rapid dissolve tablets. Sterile compounds include eye drops and injections which we cannot make on site. However, we are often able to source sterile compounded injections for you and have them shipped to our pharmacy for your convenience, call us for more details.
Benefits of Compounded Medications
- Customized dosing versus one size fits most standard manufactured doses
- Minimal fillers
- Available in veggie capsules
- Available in dye-free capsules
- Available in delayed release formulations
- Paraben free
- Gluten free
Turn Around Time
Compounds are customized prescriptions and made inside our lab within the pharmacy. Since these are customized for each individual and made in our lab, these require a little more time to be completed. Not to worry though, compounds can usually be made same-day or within 1 business day.
Expiration
Compounded prescriptions exclude preservatives and other stabilizing ingredients. So generally speaking, topical compounds have beyond use dates of 90 days while troches, suppositories, and capsules have 6 month beyond use dates.
Why Do We Still Need Compounded Medications?
Some valuable medications are available only by compounding. What's more, many FDA-approved drugs also contain other elements patients are allergic to or can have adverse reactions to, making compounding the only way for them to receive the medication they need without the offending elements. Under U.S. law, pharmacists may not compound a medication for which there is an FDA-approved manufactured product available. It's in the many instances when an FDA-approved manufactured drug cannot adequately treat a patient that compounding is essential.
Are Compounded Medications Safe?
Of course, compounding pharmacies and pharmacists are licensed and strictly regulated by the state and federal governments just like traditional retail dispensing pharmacies. Additionally, they are governed by standards set by United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) and by regulations and guidelines set forth by accreditation agencies.
How Is The Industry Regulated?
All pharmacies and pharmacists, including compounding pharmacies, are licensed and strictly regulated by State Boards of Pharmacy. Additionally, the Food & Drug Administration has authority over some aspects of compounded prescriptions.
Standards set by the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) are integrated into the day-to-day practice of pharmacy compounding and are mandated in most states. Additional non-profit agencies provide oversight through accreditation processes.
What Suppliers Sell Ingredients To Compounding Pharmacies?
Just like pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, compounding pharmacies get their ingredients for medications from suppliers registered and inspected by the FDA. Foreign suppliers are FDA-registered facilities as well.