Our wobbly coalition

Some days this job is like trying to keep a bunch of frogs in a wheelbarrow.

I’m not complaining really — it’s what you pay me for. It does have its challenges, but it’s what we have. To our credit, I’d say managing to have gotten so many frogs into the wheelbarrow in the first place is an accomplishment.

I spend my days trying to keep them there and making sure the thing doesn’t tip over. It can happen, you know: The frogs get rowdy or the barrow gets wobbly, then over it goes, a field day for predators. It’ll be Frogamageddon, I tell ya.

APC has grown to represent a diverse, ragtag group of stakeholders: big compounders and small, traditional pharmacies and outsourcing facilities, family-owned and private equity-backed, retail dispensing and telehealth platforms. Oh, and lots of suppliers.

It’s a wobbly wheelbarrow of a coalition, not as sleek or as fast (or as well funded) as some, but it’s doing the job. We’re making progress. A lot of progress. We’re bringing new credibility to a profession whose noble work in serving patients has long been occluded by the behavior of its worst actors.

But I worry about that wobble — about all the ways we could tip over and all the entities and events that could end up scattering the frogs.

Artist’s conception
 

I worry about threats from drugmakers who are clearly taking aim at compounding and would undo in law and guidance your ability to serve your patients.

I worry about a media narrative that is defining your work as somehow sketchy — and the effect of that narrative on the patients who depend on compounded drugs.

And yeah, I worry about the threat of self-inflicted wounds — of a compounder cutting corners and harming a patient, of compounders who criticize and complain about their competitors instead of, you know, simply out-competing them.

Those are real threats that won’t just set us back, they could undo what we’ve accomplished.

The wheelbarrow feels a bit rickety. The road is bumpy. The frogs are restless and don’t always get along. And, if I’m honest, some days I’m not as steady as others. Still, we all roll along — a rowdy, ragtag, croaking chorus for compounding.

I’m glad you’re rolling with us.

— Scott

Scott Brunner, CAE, is APC’s chief executive officer and director of our amphibian-transportation division. You can reach him at scott@a4pc.org.