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Your client credibility: are your pharmacy practices helping or hindering?
1Companion Animal Products, Boehringer Ingelheim Canada Ltd., Vetmedica Division, Burlington, Ontario.
The Canadian Veterinary Journal = La Revue Veterinaire Canadienne
|September 17, 2004
Summary
Veterinarians must prioritize licensed pharmaceuticals over compounded products due to undefined quality and safety standards. Choosing compounded or extra-label drugs (ELDU) transfers full liability for patient outcomes to the practitioner.
Area of Science:
- Veterinary Pharmacy
- Pharmaceutical Compounding
- Drug Regulation and Liability
Background:
- Product source significantly impacts pharmaceutical efficacy, therapeutic success, and practitioner credibility.
- Compounded products lack defined quality assurance, efficacy, potency, and safety standards.
- Ethical considerations arise regarding veterinarians producing autogenous vaccines or compounding antimicrobials for food-producing animals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To outline ethical and responsible pharmacy principles for veterinary pharmaceutical selection.
- To clarify the responsibilities and liabilities associated with using compounded and extra-label drugs (ELDU).
- To provide guidance on prioritizing pharmaceutical choices in veterinary practice.
Main Methods:
- Review of ethical guidelines and regulatory implications for veterinary drug use.
- Analysis of the responsibilities associated with dispensing compounded and ELDU.
- Discussion of informed consent and due diligence in selecting compounding services.
Main Results:
- Veterinarians bear 100% liability for the quality, efficacy, potency, and safety of compounded products.
- Adverse drug reactions (ADR), illness, or lack of effect from compounded products result in full practitioner liability.
- Regulatory freedom for ELDU and compounded products entails heightened responsibilities.
Conclusions:
- The primary choice should always be a veterinary-licensed pharmaceutical for the intended indication.
- Extra-label drug use (ELDU) of a licensed product with established protocols is the next best option.
- Compounded pharmaceuticals should be a last resort, used only when no licensed product exists, with extreme caution for transdermal formulations and informed owner consent.