Sterile Compounding Pharmacy in Flinders

What Makes Sterile Compounding Different?

Most compounded medicines, such as creams, capsules and oral liquids, are prepared using clean but non-sterile techniques. Sterile compounding goes further. Every step is designed to keep microorganisms out of the finished medicine, because it may be injected or placed in the eye, where an infection could cause serious harm.

The Pharmacy Board of Australia notes that compounding sterile medicines involves significant safety risks and requires specific competencies. Pharmacists who do this work are expected to be trained in aseptic technique and to have that technique checked regularly in the workplace.

Sterile Compounded Medications

Sterile compounded medications are prepared for one person, based on a prescription. Depending on the prescription, they may include:

• injectable medicines in a strength or form that isn’t available commercially
• eye drops made without an ingredient the patient is sensitive to
• other preparations that must be sterile because of how they are used

Whether a medicine can be prepared this way depends on the prescription, the ingredients and the facilities available, so not every sterile medicine can be compounded in every pharmacy.

How Sterile Compounding Is Regulated

Under the Board’s guidelines, pharmacists who compound sterile medicines must follow the principles of a recognised standard, such as the PIC/S guide to good practices for preparing medicinal products in healthcare establishments, or the United States Pharmacopeia chapter on sterile preparations.

Before preparing a sterile medicine, the pharmacist must consider:

• the practice setting and the types of medicines being prepared
• the risks identified in a formal risk assessment
• the risks to the patient and to anyone handling the medicine

For complex and high-risk preparations, pharmacists may also use outside experts to audit their practice, or send samples to an accredited laboratory for testing.

As with all compounding, the Board says a medicine should not be compounded if a suitable commercial medicine is already available, if the pharmacy doesn’t have the right equipment or the pharmacist doesn’t have the required skills, or if there is no evidence that the medicine is safe and appropriate. Your doctor and pharmacist can talk you through whether a sterile compounded medicine is the right choice for you.

Sterile Compounding Flinders

Flinders Discount Chemist is at 7 Munmorah Circuit, Flinders NSW 2529. Please call us on (02) 4296 5548 with your prescription details before you visit, so our pharmacist can review it before your medicine is prepared.

For other medicines made to order, see our compounding pharmacy services, or contact us with your questions.

Other compounding services include prescription compounding, veterinary compounding and pain management compounding. New to compounding? Learn the compounding basics.

Sterile Compounding FAQs