ProPharm Compounding Pharmacy next to Sullivan’s in Gillespie.
Pro Pharm Rx Inc., under the direction of T.J. Allan and Maurice Sullivan, will be opening this fall next door to Sullivan’s Pharmacy at 115 South Macoupin in Gillespie.
According to Allan, who is a pharmacist at Sullivan’s in Gillespie, “This is something our patients – not just in Gillespie, but throughout Macoupin and Montgomery county, have wanted for awhile. Right now, the nearest compounding pharmacies are in Springfield and Edwardsville. We have patients driving 45 miles for items that can only be made at a compounding pharmacy.”
The pair has been planning the pharmacy since 2012 and they explained the process took a little longer than expected because compounding pharmacy is going through a major transition right now throughout the U.S.
“We wanted to make sure we had the education, certifications, and knowledge in place before we opened our doors,” Allan added. “This isn’t something you walk out of pharmacy school and are equipped to handle. As a pharmacy, you just can’t decide to do it in a month or even a year. It’s a specialty that requires very specific knowledge, training, and equipment.”
Unlike traditional retail pharmacy where the majority of prescriptions already come prepackaged from the drug manufacturers, compounding pharmacies create custom medications for individual patients based on a physician’s order. Custom creams, gels, suppositories, troches, capsules, lollipops, and effervescent tablets are just a few of the items a compounding pharmacist can create.
“Often times we’ll have a patient that needs a specific dosage form or strength that isn’t available from traditional drug manufacturers. If a compounding pharmacy isn’t near, the patient is out of luck,” Allan said. “We can even compound medications for pets. We have quite a few patients that are currently driving to Edwardsville for medications for their cats and dogs. It’s definitely a niche.”
We hope to be able to help patients find the right natural solutions to get and keep them healthy
Creating custom hormone creams and oral medications for men and women is something Pro Pharm Rx can help a physician with.
Although Pro Pharm Rx will be considered a compounding-only pharmacy, they plan on carrying a full line of natural supplements and will also offer consultations and biomarker testing for patients interested in losing weight and getting healthy.
“There’s definitely a movement in the U.S. with patients being proactive about their health, and for most, they’re trying to do it naturally,” Allan closed. “We hope to be able to help patients find the right natural solutions to get and keep them healthy. We’ve been doing biomarker blood testing and hormonal and nutritional consultations for the last year at our gym in Edwardsville, and we’ve received a lot of great feedback.”
He added that even the clients’ physicians liked the biomarker blood testing because it helped take a little load off of them. With everything going on with Medicare and the various insurance programs, Allan said physicians’ workloads are unbelievable.
“If we can spend 10-15 minutes with their patients discussing what their lab results mean, everyone wins.”
A specific date for its opening has not been set as Pro Pharm Rx Inc. is in the final stages of the certification process. They are just waiting on a state inspection and some final pieces of equipment to arrive.
For more information, please stay tuned to The BenGil Post.
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