A Compendium of Compounding Agents and Formulations, Part 5: Timolol and Beta-glucans

Cutaneous wounds that prove refractory to treatment with commercially manufactured medications impose a burden on patients, create challenges for the clinicians who treat them, and increase the cost of therapy. The success of pharmaceutical wound management and cure depends in part on the degree to which active healing agents are delivered quickly and effectively to injured tissues (factors also affected by the drug[s] and excipients incorporated and skin permeability at the injured site). When an external injury has failed to resolve despite treatment with standardized drug products, a pharmaceutical compound can often provide healing relief. In this report, profiles of and formulations containing timolol (a beta- adrenergic receptor antagonist) and beta-glucans (glucose polymers) are provided. The healing effects of those agents are underrecognized in mainstream medicine, and as a result, they remain underprescribed and unavailable in commercial medications. However, when included in a customized pharmaceutical compound, they can enable and accelerate dermal- wound resolution.