The patient-oriented preparation of medication is anchored deeply in pharmacy practice. Hospital pharmacies have prepared and compounded medicines, since the establishment of the profession, to adequately respond to patient needs, especially for those patients whose medical requirements cannot be met by industrially manufactured medicines (commercially available medications) or by medications that are no longer available.

 

Compounding is essential for patient care since it closes the gap between licensed medicinal products manufactured by industry and the lack of treatment options for certain patient groups and individual patients with extraordinary medical conditions or needs often encountered in hospital and private settings.

 

The area of application for compounding is vast, ranging from patients with ingestion difficulties to paediatric and elderly patients where age-adapted drug formulations are required. 

 

Compounding has gained more importance in recent years, addressing medicine shortages and by being able to not interrupt treatment when medications are discontinued due to them being of no more commercial interest

 

Furthermore – studies have shown that in low- and middle-income countries, pharmaceutical compounding is vital to provide high-quality healthcare service (J Med Access. 2023 Jan-Dec; 7)