Monday 2 February 2015

Photo a Day 33


Driving by I would never have seen this one. It's almost hidden under the overhang of a commercial building on 24th Avenue and I spotted it waiting for the light to change. Since pharmacists used to prepare concoctions many years ago, it would seem to be a sign long past its time.

Once home and busily researching online, I discovered that there is a still a need for altering some drugs to suit individual patients. One that interests me involves turning solid pills into a liquid formula to insure immediate ingestion of a prescription. They can also reduce dosages; but halving and quartering pills can be a do-it- yourself project at home. Not sure how an increase or decrease in an active ingredient could be possible when dealing with proprietary drugs as they are normally made to prevent any extraction of ingredients. Years ago working for Frosst - makers of 222s and others - I knew they were always reformulating to prevent the codeine from being unbound from the inert fillers and sold as a street drug. So I would surmise a fairly sophisticated laboratory would be required to alter any medicines.

Maybe retaining the sign with the 'compounding' intact gives the illusion of master alchemists hard at work and justifies those high dispensing fees.

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