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24 Apr 2015
Guidelines for compounding pharmacists take effect Tuesday, with one section that has been postponed for three months.
The new Pharmacy Board of Australia guidelines for pharmacists who compound medicines take effect Tuesday 28 April 2015 (except for one section, which has been postponed. See note below).
The guidelines are intended to provide detailed guidance to pharmacists who compound medicines to ensure product quality, safety and efficacy.
The Board published the guidelines on its website in early March to allow pharmacists to become familiar with the content before implementation.
The guidelines were subject to wide-ranging consultation and replace Guideline 5 Extemporaneous dispensing (compounding) from the Board’s Guidelines for dispensing of medicines published on 12 August 2010.
The compounding guidelines and supporting tools are available on the Codes, Guidelines and Policies page of the Board website, and the FAQs are available on the FAQ and Fact Sheets page.
The implementation of the expiry of compounded parenteral medicines section in the guidelines has been postponed.
This means that the Expiry of compounded parenteral medicines section of the guidelines does not come in to effect on Tuesday, and practitioners do not need to follow this guidance for now.
The Board recently received further feedback and information on its guidance about the expiry of compounded medicines that needs further investigation and review.
Over the next three months, the Board will consider this feedback in further consultation with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) who has also undertaken a review of options for reform of the regulatory framework for pharmacy compounding.
To reflect this decision, the guidelines and FAQs have been updated.
The Board will review the information and seek further views over this three month period, and keep working closely with the TGA and other stakeholders.
Pharmacists who compound medicines are urged to read the: