So I have some health conditions and my dad has some conditions too.
There are some potential treatments that require mixtures from a compounding pharmacy. If a person wanted to try those treatments, how exactly would they go about doing it?
Do you go to the PCP, show them the scientific paper and have them send the recipe to a compounding pharmacy so you can try it? Or do you have to find the compounding pharmacy yourself?
Are meds from compounding pharmacies covered by insurance the same way an RX from a pharmacy like walmart or CVS is covered?
Are the prices similiar? Like if an oral med is generic and only $8 a month at a regular pharmacy (total cost, not copay), would the topical med from a compounding pharmacy be roughly in the same ballpark in price (and not $100 a month)
Based entirely on once having had to give a cat a medication from a compounding pharmacy, and noting that I’m not a pharmacist:
You probably have to get a prescription from a relevant physician sent to the pharmacy in question. The doctor will probably know what pharmacy to send it to. But if you have no prescription, I don’t think you can get the meds, even if you know how to contact the pharmacy.
I have no idea what your insurance will do about it, but strongly suspect that it depends on the exact policy you have and who you have it with, at least in the USA. And what it costs, even aside from that, may depend on the pharmacy – again, at least in the USA.
I was in a similar situation as @thorny_locust , except for a dog, and our process was the same. Our vet wrote a script, and we took it to the pharmacy (it was both a “regular” pharmacy and a compounding one).
I used to get a prescription from a compounding pharmacy, and the process is similar to other pharmacies. It might help to do a search for compounding pharmacies in the area to find convenient locations. I think the prescription I had was covered by insurance.
My vet. sent it straight to the pharmacy, which mailed the drug to me. We either didn’t have a compounding pharmacy anywhere close (I’m in a rural area), or didn’t have one one which could handle the particular drug, which was a cancer chemotherapy drug that came with serious warnings. (The cat was supposed to get several doses, which I was warned would make him temporarily sicker and might not work. He threw up the second one immediately. He also threw up the antiemitic the vet gave me to give him before the next dose. We gave up, and went to palliative care. He lived another three months anyway, making a partial recovery inbetween.)
I needed a prescription from a compounding pharmacy not that long ago. The doctor sent the prescription to the pharmacy that he uses and the pharmacy delivered it - the only dealing I had with the pharmacy was a phone call to arrange payment and delivery. I didn’t have to locate a compounding pharmacy. The doctor had some arrangement with the pharmacy if insurance didn’t cover it, but my insurance did. I should probably note that prescriptions for people in my state normally must be sent electronically , so I was never going to be handed a paper predcription.
Once I was prescribed nitroglycerin cream, but at a non-standard strength. My doctor gave me a prescription and I got it filled at a compounding pharmacy. No different than any other, except you had to bring the prescription in person and wait for them to compound it.
I’m not in the US but it’s news to me that a “compounding pharmacy” is any sort of special entity. I was once prescribed a cream that consisted of 50% each of two different prescription ointments. I just took it to my usual pharmacy and they mixed it up. It’s not rocket science. The only difference was that what might have come in a commercially packaged tube came instead in a pill bottle.
Taking two ointments produced by pharmaceutical companies and mixing them together 50/50 might not require a compounding pharmacy but that doesn’t mean a retail pharmacy like CVS can produce a dye-free, sugar free liquid antibiotic in a dosage that isn’t commercially available.
I’m sure if you just need liquid Keflex with some special flavor, most places will be able to do it. My recommendation is to do a web search for compounding pharmacies in your area, and then call and ask if they’ll do the specific drug. Once you know where to send the prescription, then talk to your doctor, so they can send it to the right place, assuming they’re willing to prescribe it.
My wife had a compounded prescription for a schedule 3 drug that most pharmacies were not willing to compound. The doctor was happy to prescribe it, but we had to find the pharmacy. Once we did, the doctor sent them the prescription. It was not covered by insurance, but the cash price was around $50/month, so we just paid it.
I was under the impression that in the US that mainstream pharmacies are more devoted to medications that come in predefined doses since its more efficient.
I wasn’t aware you could just go to a regular pharmacy and ask for a cream with a certain % of medication in it.
Now you know it’s at least conceivable they can help you. The rest is details.
I will suggest that what matters to you is whether the ordinary pharmacies near you have those abilities for the meds you need. So call them (or visit) and ask them.
If your scientific paper is talking about performing chemistry, or using substances that aren’t already properly licensed human-use pharmaceuticals, good bet a CVS / Walgreens isn’t going to be able to do that.