NEWS RELEASE
Compounding group becomes Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding
ALEXANDRIA, VA (January 7, 2020)
- The leading advocacy organization for pharmacy compounding has a new name. Members of the former International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists voted in November to change the association's name to the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding.
The organization debuted its new logo and website (www.a4pc.org) in December. The new name became official January 1, 2020. The name change follows a relocation of the organization's headquarters from Houston, Texas, to Alexandria, Virginia, last July.
"This is really more than a change of name," said APC Chief Executive Officer Scott Brunner, CAE. "It's also a change of direction, a new vision. We're expanding our tent in recognition that pharmacy compounding is not only about pharmacists, but technicians, educators, researchers, supply chain professionals, policymakers, and even - especially - prescribers and patients.
"Our aim is to represent the entire scope of pharmacy compounding," said APC Board Chair Jennifer Burch, owner of Central Compounding in Durham, NC. "We'll be welcoming these new constituencies to our organization because there's strength in numbers. Pharmacy compounding professionals, prescribers and patients alike stand to gain from our advocacy work."
"We're the only trade association focused solely on pharmacy compounding public policy advocacy," added 2020 APC President Shawn Hodges, owner of Innovation Compounding in Kennesaw, Georgia. "So we think it's important that our name and our activities represent and reflect the entire profession. We're stronger together. Together we can assure that patient safety and access to compounded meds - our top priorities - are protected."
The organization is engaged in advocacy on a number of issues related to patient access to compounded medications, including:
- Proposing to FDA a "middle way" on a Memorandum of Understanding with states that satisfies FDA's need for information on interstate shipments of compounded drugs and state board of pharmacy concerns about state level regulation of patient-specific compounded medications.
- Appealing beyond-use date restrictions in the new USP <795> and <797> chapters, which has resulted in an indefinite postponement of the effective date of the new chapters until USP can address concerns.
- Encouraging the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine to seek input from prescribers and dispensers of compounded bioidentical hormone replacement therapy as a part of NASEM's FDA-funded study of cBHRT and recommending credible practitioners to testify before the NASEM committee.
Details on APC's other advocacy priorities can be found under the Advocacy tab at
www.a4pc.org
.
For 2020, APC's strategic ends include:
- Assuring patient access to compounded medications.
- Robust advocacy focused on assuring consistent, practical regulation of the profession that is rooted in actual science and properly enforced.
- Ensuring that compounding professionals have the knowledge and resources they need to excel in pharmacy compounding.
- Ensuring that, as professionals, APC member compounders hold themselves to the highest standards of ethical conduct.
- Building a multi-disciplinary community of compounding pharmacy professionals engaged in learning from each other.
APC is the voice for pharmacy compounding, representing thousands of pharmacists, technicians, students, researchers and supply chain professionals. Compounding exists for patients and animals who are not served by traditional pharmaceutical manufacturers. Every day, our members play a critical, often life-or-death role in patients' lives. They are a valued part of the health care team, creating essential medications unavailable elsewhere for a range of issues, including autism, oncology, dermatology, ophthalmology, pediatrics, women's health, and more.
