# Two questions about prescription drugs in general and one about Propecia specifically **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-questions-about-prescription-drugs-in-general-and-one-about-propecia-specifically/331230 "2005-11-15T22:31:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FlippyFly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FlippyFly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlippyFly)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-questions-about-prescription-drugs-in-general-and-one-about-propecia-specifically/331230/1 "2005-11-15T22:31:09Z")
Two questions about prescription drugs in general and one about Propecia specifically 1 – I got a 1 mg tablet… so what’s in the pill? It’s small, but I’ll bet it weighs more than 1 mg. What’s the rest of it? Filler? 2 – Does the pharmacist make the pill? It’s for Propecia. Do they just buy them from Merck and count the pills? 3 – Anyone know at the absolute minimal level what Propecia is made from? Some kind of plant perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-questions-about-prescription-drugs-in-general-and-one-about-propecia-specifically/331230/2 "2005-11-15T22:40:07Z")
Most drugs are just counted. Compounding pharmacists can make special pills at a doctor’s request. I had to have progesterone pills made specially for me at the beginning of my last pregnancy. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-questions-about-prescription-drugs-in-general-and-one-about-propecia-specifically/331230/3 "2005-11-15T22:53:27Z")
There’s a lot of filler in pills - The bulk is usually microcrystalline cellulose, plus whatever they want to color it with. > [@Propecia's prescribing information](#): > > PROPECIA tablets for oral administration are film-coated tablets that contain 1 mg of finasteride and the following inactive ingredients: lactose monohydrate, microcrystalline cellulose, pregelatinized starch, sodium starch glycolate, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose LF, titanium dioxide, > magnesium stearate, talc, docusate sodium, yellow ferric oxide, and red ferric oxide. In as few words as possible, Propecia is a synthetic 4-azasteroid compound - in more words, it inhibits a specific enzyme. As for the pharmacists, almost all standard Walgreens/Safeway/Costco type drugstores just count pills out of bulk bottles into your small prescription bottle. Outside of hospital pharmacies, it’s getting more and more uncommon to find compounding pharmacists, who are people that actually mix and prepare medications ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-questions-about-prescription-drugs-in-general-and-one-about-propecia-specifically/331230/4 "2005-11-16T01:44:38Z")
Although monocrystalline cellulose is a very common filler , drug products usually contain more non-active (excipient) components than that. And I guess filler isn’t the best word - sometimes these components are needed to make a pill “behave” in the right way. A given pill might have lactose, or various starches, and some quantity of steric acid, or calcium or whatnot. “Long lasting”, slow release drugs will contain various amounts of release modifiers, such as Kollidon SR, ProSolv or Carbopol depending on the drug itself and how fast/slow they want the drug to be released from the tablet, and where in the body (stomach, upper GI, lower GI) it needs to be released to maximize absorption, etc. A 1mg tablet contains, per tablet, 1mg of the active ingredient, and the rest of the weight is filler. In case you’re wondering, that 1mg is pretty accurate - potency assays need to be within (typically) 98.0-102.0% of that label claim in order for the drug to be released to the market The weight of the tablets also is very consistent, as is thickness and rate of dissolution, etc. The exact criteria changes per product. Guess what i do for a living? ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-questions-about-prescription-drugs-in-general-and-one-about-propecia-specifically/331230/5 "2005-11-16T02:03:06Z")
> [@FlippyFly](#): > > Two questions about prescription drugs in general and one about Propecia specifically Another question to add: Just how safe is Propecia? Do a search under my name. I’ve linked **preliminary** studies that raise concerns re: Propecia and aggressive tumors.