When choosing a compounding pharmacy, PCAB suggests looking for the designation "PCAB Accredited™ compounding pharmacy" or this Seal:

A word to patients about compounding

Compounded medications are prescriptions that are written by physicians and prepared by pharmacists – often specially trained pharmacists – for individual patients. They are not commercially available; rather, they are prescribed by a physician, dentist, veterinarian or other legally authorized prescriber and prepared by a pharmacist to meet an individual's unique needs. Compounded medications are necessary for a variety of reasons. Examples include:

• The patient is a child who cannot take a pill and needs a liquid version of a medication, or a smaller dose than is available through mass manufacturing.
• The patient cannot tolerate one or more of the components of a manufactured drug (such as preservatives, sugar or gluten)
• A manufacturer decides to stop making a medication for economic reasons. However, a physician believes that medication is best for his or her patient. In this case, the prescriber may write a prescription for the discontinued drug, and the compounding pharmacist can prepare it by mixing the ingredients into a form of the medication the patient can use.
• Standard treatments have failed and an alternative is needed.
• The dosage forms available may be unusable by some patients. (For example, a product that is only available as a tablet may need to be formulated so that it can be absorbed through the skin or taken as a suppository for a patient who cannot swallow.)

Commonly compounded medicines include hormone-replacement therapy; pain medication for hospice patients and pediatric formulations of a variety of drugs.

The advantage of a compounded or customized medication is the same as every treatment alternative your prescriber has at hand. Your prescriber will search for the best way to treat a patient's healthcare problem. Compounded medication is one possible answer.

There are no perfect medications. The medicine or dosage form that works well on one patient for one particular condition may not work well for another patient or a different condition. This is why your physician, dentist or other prescriber, needs options. With each patient and each treatment, the doctor must consider and assess the risks and benefits among all alternatives – including the choice of doing nothing.