How Do Compounding Pharmacies Differ from Retail Pharmacies?
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Pharmacies are where you get the medicines prescribed by your doctor. Whether it is for kids or adults, they surely have all the medications that you need. However, there are times when you need custom medication that is not readily available in retail pharmacies.
It can be that the concentration or dosage that you need is lower than what is offered usually in retail pharmacies. This is when compounding pharmacies come really helpful. But how do compounding and retail pharmacies differ from each other? Here are the 3 main differences between those two pharmacy types.
Creates Specialty Formulas
In some cases, the combination of medicines that you need is not yet available or produced by pharmaceutical companies maybe because it is not yet in demand to be mass-produced. You can’t get these specialty medications from retail pharmacies because they only sell what is delivered to them by pharmaceuticals. If you need a special formula, a compounding pharmacy is where you need to go.
They have the raw forms of chemicals that are needed to create the type of mix that you need. Aside from that, they can also produce medicines with improved features. One of them is improving the taste of the medicine. Children don’t like taking medicines because of the bad taste that accompanies them. However, if you let a compounding chemist create it, you can request to make it taste better or flavorless at all. If you’re looking for a compounding chemist Sydney has some of the few good ones.
Same Medication, Different Forms
There are some cases when you need medication in a different form than what is usually sold in pharmacies. In compounding pharmacies, you can have your medicine in the form that you prefer. For instance, some medications have undesirable side effects when taken orally in pill form. However, you can avoid experiencing these side effects by choosing a different form that bypasses the digestive tract in topical cream form for example. In retail pharmacies, you can only get what type is manufactured by pharmaceutical companies.
Custom-Made Dosage
Although most of the time, doctors prescribe treatment dosages that can easily be found in retail pharmacies, there are special cases when your prescription needs to be customized to fit what is needed. This is common especially among children because their dosage is calculated based on their age, weight, and other more factors.
Getting the precise concentration of medicine is essential to ensure potency and decrease the likelihood of side effects occurring. Compounding pharmacies are experts when it comes to customizing drug dosages specific to a patient’s prescription. You can definitely get the perfect medication suited for you unlike when you just buy from a retail pharmacy and try to adjust the dosage by yourself.
Compounding pharmacies are few and rare to find. However, you should know at least one or two of these pharmacy types which you can trust in case you need a customized medication someday.