Key private-sector stakeholders are taking action to ensure the safety of the specialty drug supply. They are making recommendations that can assure that the drugs are properly manufactured, distributed and sold.
By doing so, the groups are improving patient care by enhancing the safety of compounded drugs and the business health of those involved through cost-effective solutions. Safer drugs lead to lower costs by avoiding the fees associated with addressing safety problems.
“The whole sterile compounding sector has grown rapidly over the past 15 years,” says Allan Coukell, senior director for drugs and medical devices at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “There’s a certain amount of reliance on compounding products today.”
Pew Charitable Trusts, along with the American Hospital Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, convened a summit on pharmacy sterile compounding in February. Among their conclusions, the groups agreed that there should be morecollaboration, education and training to improve the safety and adequacy of the sterile compounded drug supply.
Hospital reliance on outside compounding pharmacies stems in part from drug shortages in recent years, requiring pharmacists to build a drug from scratch, says Bona Benjamin, director of medication use quality improvement for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Sodium bicarbonate and sodium phosphate injections are some examples.
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