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• Let’s talk about that Lilly announcement

  There’s been plenty of coverage of Eli Lilly’s announcement this week that it will sell vials of Zepbound directly to consumers at a discount. But the company seems to have left out a few important caveats. read more →

• Our response to the op-ed in The Hill

  The Hill published an editorial by Dr. Kenneth McCall titled “Fake, unsafe weight-loss drugs are a worsening public health dilemma” in which he makes unfounded claims about pharmacy compounding. Here’s the response from our CEO. read more →

• The shortage ends … then what? (Find out at CCH) 

  We’ve added a new session to the Compounders on Capitol Hill lineup. Don’t miss the discussion of what’s on many a compounder’s (and regulators’ … and reporters’...) mind. read more →

• A new bronze corporate patron

  A big welcome to Ro, APC’s newest tier-level corporate patron! read more →

• Education (and CE) from USP

  For the fourth year in a row, USP will be holding a hybrid live/virtual workshop dedicated to improving the quality of compounding. read more →

• Compounding post-Chevron

  At least three issues affecting pharmacy compounding might be affected by the overturning of the decades-old “Chevron doctrine.” read more →

• 503B sourcing: our state-by-state analysis

  Do you work for one of APC’s PFMs? If you’re with a Pharmacy/Facility Member, you’ve got access to a new resource. read more →

• What we’ll be talking about at CCH

  When we get together on Capitol Hill to meet with legislators and their staffs, as much as we’d like to talk about a half-dozen issues (easily!), we’re going to be focusing on the three most important.  read more →

More News

Last week, The Hill published an editorial by Dr. Kenneth McCall titled “Fake, unsafe weight-loss drugs are a worsening public health dilemma” in which he makes unfounded claims about pharmacy compounding. Here’s the response from our CEO (submitted as a letter to the editor, yet to be published or acknowledged):

In his op-ed for The Hill, Dr. Kenneth McCall is right: Fake pharmacies and the counterfeit, untested substances they sell are a public health dilemma. I’d even call them a scourge. But McCall is careless when he lumps legitimate compounded drugs in with the sketchy stuff as if they are one and the same. 

I feel sure he knows that medications prepared for an individual patient in a state-licensed, state-inspected pharmacy pursuant to a prescription are required to adhere to the high standards of the U.S. Pharmacopeia, in addition to state and federal law and FDA guidance. Unfortunately, both Dr. McCall and the organization on whose board he serves, the Partnership for Safe Medicines, have relied on statements they’ve copied almost verbatim from drugmaker news releases that conflate legitimate compounding with illicit activity and are grossly misleading.

Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that those drugmakers in fact fund the Partnership for Safe Medicines. In any case, Dr. McCall’s piece disparages legitimate pharmacy compounding — an essential therapeutic practice in our healthcare system, and one that millions of patients depend on when an FDA-approved drug is not appropriate for their situation (in the judgment of a prescriber) or not currently accessible.