Because every patient is different and has different needs, customized medications are a vital part of quality medical care. The preparation, mixing, assembling, packaging, or labeling of a drug or device as the result of a practitioner, patient, pharmacist relationship in the course of professional practice, or for the purpose of or as an incident to, research, teaching, or chemical analysis and not for sale or dispensing. Compounding also includes the preparation of drugs or devices in anticipation of prescription drug orders based on routine, regularly observed prescribing patterns. A customized medication prepared by a pharmacist according to a doctor's specifications to meet an individual patient need.
Pharmacists make medications from scratch using raw chemicals, powders and devices.
Manufacturers must be assured that there will be a return on their investment when entering the market place with a drug product. Therefore, there are limited chemical forms, dosage forms, strengths, flavors and packaging that are available for the physician to prescribe and the pharmacist to dispense. Compounding allows the physician to prescribe a custom-tailored medication that is not available commercially. Pharmacists prepare small quantities of a prescription more frequently to ensure stability of the product for its intended use. Physicians prescribe a commercially available medication in a different dosage form to meet a specific patient need and ensure patient compliance.