Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda

< Back to Home

Mar
31

Compounding drugs – myth v reality

There’s a lot of nonsense circulating about the wonders of compounded medications, almost all of it promulgated by companies and people in the compounding industry.

What’s notable about all of their claims is the complete lack of scientific research supporting their claims that more people need compounds, that compounds work, are safe, and deliver better results than non-compounded medications.

Turns out the reason these advocates don’t cite research is – the research doesn’t support the use of compounds for more than a very few patients.

That’s the key takeaway from CompPharma’s just-released research paper; Compounding is Confounding Worker’s Compensation.  You can download it here.

Here are a few of the findings:

  • Compounds have not been proven to be more effective than commercially available, manufactured drugs that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in similar classes. In fact, efficacy data in general are non-existent for the types of compounds seen in workers’ compensation claims.
  • Using compounds poses risks to patients
  • Compounds are often not medically necessary
  • Compounds are expensive

Despite reports of outrageous cost inflation, dozens of deaths due to faulty processes and poor quality control, and little progress in improving oversight, compounding continues to plague work comp.

What does this mean for you?

Time to develop and implement a policy for approving and reimbursing for compounds – one based on science, and not marketing nonsense.

Note – I am president of CompPharma, altho I had little to do with the actual research paper; credit for that goes to the pharmacists and government affairs people from CompPharma’s member PBMs.  They did a terrific job.


One thought on “Compounding drugs – myth v reality”

Comments are closed.

Joe Paduda is the principal of Health Strategy Associates

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL

SEARCH THIS SITE

A national consulting firm specializing in managed care for workers’ compensation, group health and auto, and health care cost containment. We serve insurers, employers and health care providers.

 

DISCLAIMER

© Joe Paduda 2024. We encourage links to any material on this page. Fair use excerpts of material written by Joe Paduda may be used with attribution to Joe Paduda, Managed Care Matters.

Note: Some material on this page may be excerpted from other sources. In such cases, copyright is retained by the respective authors of those sources.

ARCHIVES

Archives