Did you know that medications aren’t only restricted to the drugs available on the commercial market?
In fact, depending on a person’s medical need, the drugs prescribed to them may be a commercially available drug or compounded medication – the latter of which are made for specific patients with needs that cannot be met by commercial drugs.
Recently, our students had the chance to learn about compounded medication and compounding pharmacists, and the role they play in the pharmaceutical industry during a talk delivered by industry expert Mahendran Thangarajah.
Currently the Managing Director of Aurelia Pharma Sdn. Bhd as well as the Managing Director & Consultant of SS Inter Pharma Consultants Sdn. Bhd, Mahendran is also a guest lecturer for Good Clinical Practice (GCP) accreditation of members partaking clinical research at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). He also lectures at Clinical sessions on Healthy Aging to doctors and interested parties in Malaysia.
Mahendran’s talk, organised by the Faculty of Pharmacy, was titled Why Start Off as A Compounding Pharmacist in Malaysia?’.
Drawing from over 40 years of working experience in an array of local and international companies, Mahendran shared his knowledge with the audience on how the field of pharmacy has changed over the years.
In particular, he explained how compounding pharmacy could become a path that our pharmacy students could venture and flourish in.
“The handling of prescribing drugs can be daunting and challenging (between a patient’s condition or a doctors’ prescription) but we are the experts. It is our duty to understand the safety, quality and efficiency for our patients,” he said.
The talk also gave our students an understanding of how important it is to adhere to a patient’s needs and a doctor’s orders from a professional and ethical standpoint.
As with all of our industry talks, the session was an engaging event that allowed our students to gain invaluable knowledge and insight from an expert. We’d like to thank our distinguished guest for sharing his views with us!
