Guidelines for Prescribing Compounded Medications
Compounded medications are often necessary to treat veterinary patients, but making sure that the compounds you prescribe are safe and effective isn’t always easy. The following tips can help improve your confidence in the compounded products you use.
1. Make sure a compound is clinically necessary for a positive outcome. Be able to justify a reason besides cost why a compound is clinically superior to using a commercial product for that patient.
2. Use compounded products that have data to support them in the literature. For example, a number of studies support the efficacy of transdermal methimazole. However, for other transdermal products, there is either a lack of supporting research or studies showing the compound is not absorbed through skin.
3. Select a high-quality compounding pharmacy. Things to look for include:
- 503b licensure status (outsourcing facilities)
- PCAB accredited
- No FDA warning letters
- Licensed in your state
- .pharmacy domain (if they are an online pharmacy)
Hard to Find Drug Tips
Place items on backorder when they are not available. Some of our success from obtaining medications in short supply comes from placing items on backorder so they auto-ship when available. We have obtained doxycycline liquid and multiple ophthalmic meds recently from placing items on backorder several months ago.
By Lauren Forsythe, PharmD, DICVP, FSVHP
Pharmacy Coodinator
