Revised guidance in effect – Compounding of sterile injectable medicines – and two new FAQ published

01 Feb 2018

The Board’s revised guidance on the compounding of sterile injectable medicines is now in effect.

The Pharmacy Board of Australia’s (the Board’s) revised guidance on the compounding of sterile injectable medicines comes into effect today.

The Board published the guidance on 1 August 2017 to give pharmacists enough time to become familiar with it and implement the required changes in their practice before it came into effect.

The guidance provides additional advice to pharmacists who compound sterile injectable medicines to help reduce the associated risks for patients.

From today pharmacists who compound sterile injectable medicines must ensure compliance with the guidance in their practice.

The guidance has been incorporated into the Board’s Guidelines on compounding of medicines and replaces the previously postponed section Expiry of compounded parenteral medicines.

The Board’s supporting frequently asked questions on the compounding of medicines were also updated on 1 August 2017 with additional information to help pharmacists apply the guidance in their practice.

The Board has also today published two new frequently asked questions which were developed when the Board became aware of a number of cases which raise the question of when a medicine should or should not be compounded by a pharmacist. These are:

• FAQ 1, which clarifies the terms ‘commercial product’ and ‘commercially available’ which are both mentioned in the Board’s Guidelines on compounding of medicines, and
• FAQ 12, which addresses what to do when you are not able to compound a prescribed medicine to the required standard.

The Guidelines on compounding of medicines are published in the Codes, Guidelines and Policies section of the Board’s website and the updated FAQ are available under FAQ and Fact Sheets.

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