We’re excited that patients and physicians now have access to Azelastine Hydrochloride USP as an ingredient option in compounded medications. There are some commercial products available, including a combination product, but when those items don’t fit the specific needs of patients, we need to put on our thinking caps and start looking for other options for them. We’re sure that you compounders out there can come up with a few of your own as well.

By Maria Carvalho, PharmD, MRPharmS, PhD. She is the Manager of PCCA Science.

I always found compounding interesting. As a young pharmacist, working in the hospital world and later for chain pharmacy, I was always intrigued by the uniqueness of it. I was not fulfilled by hospital or chain pharmacy, though. In the chain world, I was a supervisor of 25 stores. I felt unfulfilled in that position and left to gain experience in independent pharmacy.

My father is a pharmacist. He owned a store for over 20 years, and I worked for him for 17 years. It was a family-oriented store—independent—and my parents, my brother and I worked together there. I loved filling prescriptions and learning the field as well as working with customers who became like family to us. It was the kind of job you enjoyed going to every day.

By Bryan Prescott, Pharm D-- Bryan is the Director of Management Coaching Services for PCCA’s Compounding Pharmacy Management Services.