Saturday, December 1, 2012

In wake of meningitis outbreak, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute explains compounding

11/28/2012 3:01

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff


Hundreds of fungal infections linked to injectable drugs made by a Framingham specialty pharmacy have sparked questions among regulators, hospitals, and patients about the role such drugmakers play in providing crucial drugs.
In an effort to educate patients about its drug compounding efforts, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has produced a video that goes into its pharmacy, showing how drugs are prepared and what steps the hospital takes to ensure that drugs are safe and sterile. Compounding is a little-known corner of pharmacy that involves preparing individualized doses for patients, but the company at the center of a major public health crisis, New England Compounding Center, was apparently acting more like a drug manufacturer, providing large batches of drugs and shipping them nationally.
Dana-Farber’s compounding pharmacy prepares 950 sterile products a day, including chemotherapy, anti-nausea medication, and intravenous

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