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We hear this message all the time: compounding pharmacies and the bioidentical hormones they produce are dangerous and unregulated. But, are they? To find out Ann Marie turns to two people who are inside the industry, which accounts for about 1 to 2 per cent of drugs sold, and gets a very different story. They are Scott Brunner, CEO of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, which represents compounding pharmacists and technicians as well as prescribers, educators, researchers and suppliers in the United States, and Jennifer Burch, a doctor of pharmacy and owner of the independent pharmacy her father started in Durham, North Carolina. Although this episode focuses on the compounding pharmacies industry in the US, there are takeaways that can be applied all over the world. 

Highlights: 

• The drug industry began with compounding pharmacies – so why are they still here? (4.45)

• The rigorous regulatory framework in place to oversee them (5.50)

• How compounding pharmacies help patients traditional pharmaceuticals cannot – including in menopause (7.32)

• Examples in peri/menopause where compounded medications help where pharmaceuticals cannot (10.13)

• How practioners work collaboratively with compounding pharmacists (12.30) 

• The one way pharmacists can tell if a medication is working for a patient (13.10)

• How compounded menopause hormone therapy works and is overseen by pharmacists, practitioners and patient consulation for peri/menopause symptoms – and how it’s different from how the majority of HRT prescriptions handled (13.30)

• The rare cases where compounding has gone wrong (17.30)

• The difference between synthetic and bioidentical hormones (and how even doctors confuse them) (19.01)

• Why you probably want to skip medroxyprogesterone and go for bioidentical progesterone instead (21.00)

• The imminent threat facing the compounding industry (26.00)

• Why the compounding isn’t even suited to the large-scale clinical trials it’s demonized for not having – and how it’s actually tested (27.23)

• The issue of pellets (and why the Alliance wants a more rigorous reporting system for adverse events for all drugs) (37.30)

• The case that may have scarred the FDA about compounding pharmacies (42.20)

• Are compounded medications really more expensive?(43.30)

Find out more:
Web: Compounding.com
Twitter: A4PC @a4pcrx Jennifer Burch @drjenn93

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