pharmoduct
AUTOMATIC PHARMACY COMPOUNDING SYSTEM

Limits of manual compounding

Despite the importance of pharmacy compounding, there are many risks associated to this activity. Compounded preparations are not FDA-approved; this means that the safety standards are often lower compared to the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. In the majority of cases, antiblastic drugs are nowadays compounded manually under a laminar flow hood. There are several limits to this approach:

Limits of existing robotic compounding systems

Existing robotic pharmacy compounding systems only replicate manual operations without any real optimization of the whole compounding process: therapies are prepared one after the other in the order of prescription. The main consequence of this is the fact that pharmacies still have a very low control of drug waste and related costs. More in general, existing robotic compounding systems have the following limits:

Pharmoduct | Pharmacy Compounding Workflow Optimisation

Pharmoduct, Automatic Compounding System  is a patented device for the sterile preparation of personalised oncology drugs, including chemotherapy and biologicals. Pharmoduct is able to reconstitute, transfer and dilute oncology drugs in order to prepare final doses (patient specific) and multi-dose bags (pharmacy bulk package). The system can manage more than 300 different drugs. The introduction of Pharmoduct in the Compounding Lab will improve the whole oncology drugs preparation workflow.

Multi-dose bags preparation

• Pharmoduct reads the electronic prescriptions and collects the ones that are based on the same API in a comprehensive macro-dose
• The operator loads Pharmoduct with the right drug vials and consumable kits, as suggested by software
• All drugs are identified by automatic label reading, all kits by RFID or barcode
• The system empties all vials (including over-fill) in the multi-dose bag
• In case of powders, drugs are automatically reconstituted before emptying into the multi-dose bag
• The dosage is checked in real time by a gravimetric scale
• Emptied vials are automatically wasted in a segregated area
• A personalised barcode label is printed for the multi-dose bag, with all the necessary preparation information
• Accordingly with the drug stability, multi-dose bags can be kept in the storage area and used in a later session as drug source

Final containers preparation

• The operator decides the drug source between multi-dose bags filled by Pharmoduct in a previous session, commercial multi-dose bags and commercial vials
• The operator loads drug source, diluent and up to 15 final containers (different typologies of final containers can be managed in the same session)
• All items are identified by RFID or barcode
• The system fills final containers one by one with the required quantity of drug and diluent (pre-filled bags can also be managed)
• The dosage is checked in real-time by gravimetric scales
• An additional final check of the dosage is performed through a dedicated external scale with integrated RFID reader
• A personalised barcode label for each container is printed, with all necessary information on the patient and dose.

HL7 integration with e-prescribing software

Pharmoduct is conceived to be easily integrated with existing e-prescribing software, in order to maximize the efficiency of the whole chemotherapy workflow. (About HL7).

Once therapies are prescribed by oncologist and validated by pharmacist, become visible directly in the screen of the
system – ready to be compounded.

Drug-based approach

Unlike other robotic compounding systems – that prepare doses one after the other, following the order of prescription – Pharmoduct groups them by drug (API, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) and operate through a batch approach.

This method allows to acquire, quantify and use the whole quantity of drug present within the vials.

All Luer Lock final containers compatibility

Pharmoduct is able to compound doses in all existing final containers with Luer Lock connection. Thanks to dedicated adaptors and support, even containers of new generation can be easily used.

The system can manage up to 15 final preparations in one batch, even of different typologies in the same session.