What if the medicine you need could be made just for you?

Pharmaceutical compounding can do just that.

A child may need a dose smaller than what is commercially available. An elderly patient may have difficulty swallowing a tablet. Someone with an allergy may need a medicine without a particular ingredient.

In cases like these, the medicine a patient needs may have to be prepared differently from the standard products available at pharmacies.

That is where pharmaceutical compounding comes in.

Simply put, compounding means preparing a medicine specifically for a patient based on a doctor’s prescription. A pharmacist can adjust the strength, form or ingredients to fit the patient’s needs.

That can mean turning a medicine into a liquid for a child or a patient who cannot swallow tablets. It can also mean removing an ingredient such as a dye that a patient cannot tolerate.

The service can be useful in the Philippines when a patient needs a dosage or formulation that is not readily available among standard, commercially manufactured medicines.

Instead of finding a commercially available product that comes close to the prescription, compounding gives pharmacists another way to prepare the medicine according to the doctor’s instructions and the patient’s specific needs.

Yet the service remains uncommon locally.

Fewer than 10 of the country’s 29,000 licensed drugstores currently offer compounding, based on figures presented during the launch of Ascend Rx, a specialty compounding pharmacy operated by AIX Ventures.

Health experts highlighted the practice during the launch, pointing to limited access to certain specialized medicines in the Philippines.

Globally, the pharmaceutical compounding market was valued at about $14.7 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $19.4 billion by 2030. Growth is being driven partly by individualized dosing, genetic testing and drug shortages.

The United States Pharmacopeia, which publishes standards used in pharmacy compounding, includes standards for compounded medicines such as progesterone vaginal inserts and various oral suspensions.

For patients, however, the basic idea is simpler. When the standard medicine available in pharmacies does not fit a patient’s prescription or needs, compounding can provide another way to prepare it.

Ascend Rx says its Makati facility is FDA-licensed for sterile and non-sterile complex compounding, among other specialized activities. It says prescriptions can be prepared for distribution within 48 hours, depending on the formulation.

The pharmacy also says it works with logistics partners to deliver compounded medicines nationwide and has served patients in Cebu and Davao.

It is considering satellite facilities outside Metro Manila, although its current compounding operations remain based in Makati.

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