Access to compounded medications critical for ophthalmologists, patients

I strongly believe access to compounded pharmaceutical products is critically important for the ophthalmologist and especially for patients. This is currently an area in flux with significant controversy, and many parties have significant vested interests. The following thoughts are my own, and I would like to disclose that in one form or another, I consult for every level of pharmaceutical product distribution I will discuss in this commentary. When I am sorting out my own personal conflicts of interest, I simply return to a “patient first” prioritization, and it is rare for me to need go any further. So, here are my thoughts as a practicing ophthalmologist treating patients daily and also as a patient on several medications.I want for my patients and myself broad access to safe and effective drugs. I want them at a reasonable cost, meaning I want a fair value. I am a firm believer that the physician-patient covenant, capitalism, the power of innovation and the free market usually sort out most controversies regarding which product a physician will select in the best interest of the patient. My patients and I want in products the same thing we want in physicians: choice, access and a fair value. Some regulatory oversight is important to assure quality of manufacture for the products we have available for our patients, but overzealous regulatory oversight is usually a catalyst for the law of unintended consequences.