When did Compounding Begin?

 

Although compounding can be traced back to Egyptian times, Compounding Pharmacies have been around America since the early 1800’s, almost as old as our country. Long before manufacturing and the FDA, compounding was the only source of medicine. In 1940 it was estimated that 50% of all Rx’s were compounds. Compounding Pharmacists went into manufacturing as the need for manufacturing grew because of the great demand for prescription drugs. This overshadowed the art of compounding but compounding continued to grow. Pharmacist owners of the past like Merck and Dome from Merck Sharp and Dome, Ely Lilly, Warner, Lambert, Smith of Smith Kline and French Labs went on to be manufacturers making many of the drugs we have seen in the 20th century and today.

 

 

 

 

By the end of the 20th century, compounding was done in every hospital, home healthcare pharmacy in the nation and at many retail pharmacies. This new specialty in pharmacy has over 5000 compounding pharmacists in the nation in over 2000 licensed compounding pharmacies all regulated by the Board of Pharmacy. Compounding pharmacist’s compound approximately 3% of the 4 billion prescriptions that are filled every year. The demand for custom made prescription medications continues to grow because manufactures can not full fill the needs of the individual patient. More and more physicians are seeing the benefit of custom made compounded products and adding them to their daily prescription protocols.

 

Over 200 years ago, compounding was pharmacy in America. Today compounding is still an integral part of pharmacy by compounding custom made prescription drugs and solving individual problems of the patient.