Why pharmacists are turning to compounders to save their bottom line

With medication shortages on the rise, community pharmacies in Australia are increasingly turning to specialist compounding chemists to help defray the time and expense associated with finding effective medication alternatives for their worried customers.

According to a new survey from the Pharmaceutical Group of European Union, last year pharmacists from 82% of countries reported they had suffered financial loss due to ‘time invested in mitigating shortages’. The same survey found that the time pharmacy staff spent on dealing with medicine shortages had increased from 5.6 hours per week (2018) to 6.6 hours per week on average.

With profit margins already slim thanks to the advent of warehouse chemists, community pharmacies in Australia are now entering into partnerships with compounders to try and reduce their workload and mitigate costs when popular medications hit the unavailable list.

In many cases compounding pharmacies can make up supplies of the unavailable medication, or, with their encyclopaedic knowledge of pharmaceuticals, can suggest the closest alternative available on the commercial market.

The onerous task of research can be taken care of by the compounder, and, armed with the right information, the community pharmacist can then present the alternatives to their customer. This saves staff time and frustration and also helps alleviate some of the anxiety for the valued customer. They know that someone is looking out for them.

National Custom Compounding offers a Partner Pharmacy Program to community pharmacies across Australia. Through this program our partner pharmacies can seek immediate advice about alternatives to unavailable medication from our specialist compounding pharmacists, over the phone, along with low prices and fast turn-around times; within 48-hours in most cases.

For more information on joining our Partner Pharmacy Program, visit the website, drop us an email on [email protected] or call us on 1300 731 755.