It was a busy first six months of 2023 for veterinary professionals and practices, and the rest of the year isn’t likely to slow down. With the tradeshow circuit back to pre-pandemic attendance and new regulations going into effect, veterinary professionals have had to manage far more than just patient care.
With the year a little more than halfway over, we’re taking a quick “paws” to review some of the major changes that have already gone into effect, ones still to come, and ways you can prepare your practice for success in the second half of the year. Here are the top five changes and trends we’re keeping an eye on.
1. Implementation of GFI #256
Earlier this year, the FDA finalized regulatory guidance for compounded medications, known as GFI #256. The new guidance affects both office stock in veterinary practices and individual animal-patient prescriptions. However, it does not include cGMP products from 503B outsourcing facilities, like Epicur Pharma.
Some of the biggest changes that GFI #256 brings include:
- Increased documentation for patient-specific prescriptions
- Limitations to available 503A office-stock drugs
Although veterinary professionals were aware of the impending changes with GFI for months, many have been left scrambling since it went into effect in April. If GFI is affecting your practice’s ability to get compounded medications for office use, partnering with a trusted 503B outsourcing facility can help you eliminate risks of limited ordering.
Because 503B outsourcing facilities aren’t included in the GFI changes, partners like Epicur Pharma can ensure your practice stays stocked with high quality, manufactured medications and help streamline ordering processes with our iFill ordering system. The system lists what you can order for office stock and will provide the documentation necessary for patient-specific orders if the guidance requires it.
Our team is dedicated to helping you stay up to date on regulation changes.
We partner with experts to offer educational webinars that ensure you understand the impact on your practice. Watch our most recent on-demand GFI webinar with Nicole Clausen, What Every Inventory Manager Needs to Know About Compounded Medications.
2. Impending USP Guidelines on Beyond-Use Dates
Coming in late 2023, new USP guidelines will limit Beyond-Use Dates (BUDs) on drugs from 503A compounding pharmacies. The changes will shorten the BUDs of compounded 503A products and will not allow pharmacies to establish longer dates, even with sufficient evidence to support or prove their cause.
The new guidelines will only affect BUDs and not expiration dates because drugs can only be assigned with an expiration date after the completion of extensive testing, which 503Bs are required to follow.
As with GFI, this USP guideline will not affect 503B products because they have longer/proven expiration dates validated by cGMP. This impending change is another reason why having a 503B partner is critical to your practice and patient care.
Want to learn more about Beyond-Use Dates vs Expiration Dates?
Read our blog!
Switching to a 503B partner now will not only alleviate any challenges you’ve had since GFI went into place, but it will also ensure you can order with ease as the impending USP guidelines of BUDs goes into effect!
3. Continued Burnout and Veterinary Staff Shortages
Unemployment rates continue to affect the veterinary industry, with estimates that by 2030 there will be a shortage of 15,000 veterinarians, making the demand for more workers increasingly urgent.
Veterinarians and staff alike struggle to cope with the challenges they face in their daily work environments. As a result, many dedicated professionals are turning away from veterinary medicine, exacerbating the current staff shortages. It is now more important than ever to be aware of the signs and symptoms of burnout so you can properly address them within your work environment.
Although it can be difficult to see, there are some ways you can help find solutions within your practice. It often starts with communication. Make sure you check in with colleagues, notice signs of stress, and offer help. Small changes within your work environment can help relieve the daily non-stop work, like setting a proper lunch break time. You can also automate processes where it makes sense and enhances your practice, such as online ordering and inventory management systems, to give time back to staff.
Need support? Many veterinary professionals are in crisis. Not One More Vet (NOMV) provides the necessary support to all members of veterinary teams and students who are struggling. Contact them today.
4. Prioritizing Client and Patient Relations
In the evolving veterinary industry, prioritizing client and patient relationships remains essential to ensuring the highest possible level of care, especially when transitioning to a service-based model. With this shift, clients often seek a personalized experience knowing you value their pet’s health and well-being as if it were your own.
Did you know?
All Epicur Pharma drugs are ready to ship same business day with 1-2 days in transit. Order today!
Often, veterinary hospital visits can be stressful for both the patient and the client. Creating an environment to keep everyone comfortable and educated throughout the visit can build trust with patients and clients.
Establishing trust with pet owners fosters a positive customer experience and nurtures long-lasting loyalty. This can be achieved by creating opportunities to share your knowledge with clients. Whether it’s tips on proper medication usage and storage, guidance on applying medications, reminders of seasonal factors such as ticks or high heat, sharing your expertise helps build a strong relationship with pet owners. To make the client’s time at your practice convenient, you can also stay regularly stocked on compounded medications approved for dispensing through a 503B outsourcing facility like Epicur Pharma.
5. Product Shortages
Product shortages are inevitable and variable, stemming from product recalls, labor shortages, unavailability of necessary packaging, or active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Recent compounded medication shortages from some suppliers have included Buprenorphine Injection, Tacrolimus AQ, and Gabapentin – leaving offices out of stock and unable to have the necessary medications readily available in case of patient emergencies. Keep in mind that for compounded medication, another supplier will be able to help you. The uncertainty of this makes it especially important to have a veterinary pharmacy that you can rely on to inform you of product changes and availability.
With Epicur, consistent and reliable 503B manufactured products are our standard every time. We offer one of the largest selections of 503B manufactured drugs that are traditionally compounded for animal health among currently registered facilities nationwide, with most of our products not having a backorder or shortage in years!
Partner with a pharmacy you trust—explore our available medications.
More to Read
The Stokes & Bova Partnership: Transforming Veterinary Medicine
Our sister division, Stokes Pharmacy, and the Bova Group have almost parallel stories—pharmacies with retail roots that expanded into compounding to better serve a larger audience with the highest quality medications possible. Both organizations have made a significant impact in the countries they serve—Stokes in the US and Bova in Australia and the United Kingdom—and they’ve both raised the bar for quality of care in veterinary medicine. In the Spring of 2024, the two organizations announced they were partnering to bring life-saving treatment for cats with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) to the United States. Since the announcement and the availability of the treatment, GS-441524, Stokes Pharmacy has successfully treated thousands of patients. The partnership didn’t end with the rollout of GS-441524. Soon, we will be announcing the availability of Omeprazole Injection for horses—a first in the United States and made possible through our collaboration with Bova Group. Together, our groups are changing the lives of pet owners and veterinarians alike. We are excited to work hand-in-hand with a group that is as dedicated to transforming veterinary care as Stokes Healthcare is. Brett Davidson, former Bova National Sales Manager in Australia and new Stokes Healthcare (Stokes and Epicur) National Equine Sales Manager, shares his unique insider’s perspective on how the two organizations are changing the landscape of veterinary medicine. Brett, tell us about your previous work at Bova and a brief background about the company. So, I worked at Bova for 16 years in Australia. I launched the expansion of the company with Nick Bova, the owner, so you could say I was employee number one, I suppose. Nick took over in 2008 after finishing his pharmacy degree. I started the same year, and we built the business in Australia from there. And then in 2017, Nick went to the UK and started that office, focusing on specialty medications for UK veterinarians. Emma Jones, Sales Director for Bova UK, was one of the first ones to help him there. And now, Bova has grown to what it is today. Because I knew the company so well, I was a jack of all trades, but my main role was organizing my sales team and our customer relationships. I worked with a lot of corporate accounts, buying groups, larger hospitals, and specialty centers. I supported my team however was most valuable to make sure we keep our clients. And now you’ve joined the Stokes Healthcare team! Tell us how that move came about and your new role. It’s great here, and I’m thrilled to be part of the team. The story of how it all happened isn’t particularly exciting, ha! I noticed that Stokes Healthcare was advertising for an Equine Sales Account Manager, so I reached out to Michael Tursi to discuss the role and his vision for it. True to form, Michael was very open and accommodating, making it easy to have an honest conversation about the opportunity. Given my experience with some of the equine products that Epicur and Stokes are launching, I’m hopeful that I can help the team break into the equine market here in the U.S. I’m really enjoying this new challenge, learning a lot, and having a great time working alongside such a dedicated team. Back to your start at Bova and the expansion – what was the vision for expanding Bova into compounding and the veterinary market? Bova chemists had been around for years, with Nick’s dad starting the business in 1968. In Australia, a pharmacy can only be owned by a pharmacist, it can’t be owned by a group or corporate, so Nick took over the retail pharmacy after graduating from university and Bova started compounding at the same time. At first, it wasn’t specifically for veterinary medicine, we were just doing compounding for human medicine, but we had a lot of the big box retail pharmacies starting to take over. They would buy a number of pharmacies in different locations, and then reduce their margins considerably. Being that Bova was an independent, we would have had to compete with these larger corporate types of pharmacies that are known for cutting prices. So, instead of trying to compete on a retail pharmacy level, Nick explored what else might be available. That’s when he came across compounding and decided that would be the direction he’d prefer to go in rather than trying to compete on price. What sets Bova apart from other compounders? In Australia, Bova built its foundations on the quality of what they do and innovation. To be honest, they are the only compounder in Australia that has continued to release new products for the veterinary industry. So, whether it’s a long-acting injection or a combination of medications for behavior or anxiety, Bova has always been first to the market with a new product. Competitors will usually follow after a year or two and release the same products. Bova is always trying to find new ways to help treat veterinary patients, that’s how they’ve really built a reputation for innovation. I think the GS tablets are a perfect example of that. We were the only ones in the world, for a long time, that had that product, and we worked with a lot of international KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) to get it right and release it. It was amazing to be a part of. And then, in Australia, it’s a differentiator how we focus a lot on quality. There are no kind of regulatory agencies actively monitoring pharmacies with compounding as much as they do in the US or the UK. Obviously, you still have the pharmacy councils and boards, but there’s no system in place where pharmacies or pharmacists can acquire certain licenses or approvals, like 503A or 503B in the US, to make certain products their facilities don’t have. At Bova, we implemented our own kind of quality assurance program based on GMP guidelines, or good manufacturing practices, which is the same as the pharmaceutical standard that Epicur has to reach.
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Advancements in Compounding – A Commitment to Integrity and Quality
The following blog is written by Epicur Pharma’s Advisory Council member Jamie Rauscher, LVT. Jamie is the current president of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America, vice president of the Georgia Veterinary Technician & Assistant Association, and part owner and medical manager of the Animal Hospital of Towne Lake. Below, Jamie shares her perspective on the advancements in compounding based on her visit to the Stokes Healthcare facility. From Jamie Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Stokes Healthcare, the parent company of Stokes Pharmacy and Epicur Pharma in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. My tour of their facility was not what I had expected. I was blown away by what I saw. As a new member of the Stokes/Epicur Advisory Council, I initially sat down and had a get-to-know-you and update session with the Director of Marketing and one of the owners of the company. We talked about new things to come into their world from a pharmacy point of view and the things that they had worked on that they had been successful with in the past. The Complexities of Laws and Regulations around Compounding We also discussed updated pharmacy regulations regarding compounding laws. Part of our conversation centered around new compounded medications, like the FIP treatment, Bova GS-441524, and the impact they will have on our profession. There is a lot of misinformation out there, especially because the black market has made those desperate for a solution compromise their best judgment and purchase medications from companies with NO regulations. There finally is a viable treatment in the United States and Stokes’ partnership with BOVA made it happen. Treatment for FIP is now Available! Learn more about the life-saving medication and order today! Bova GS-441524 A Seat at the Table as a Technician Being asked for my input along with being recognized for my knowledge base and expertise as a technician was refreshing and appreciated. Technicians spend a large portion of their time communicating with owners about the medications that have been prescribed and the best way to obtain and administer them. Creativity is the key more often than not. When touring their compounding facilities, being able to see the behind-the-scenes part of their process was eye-opening. The protocols that are put in place for sterility and quality control are amazing. Being able to see these things in person gave me a whole new respect for their compounding pharmacies. The size of their businesses, their growth history, and their continued focus on integrity and quality make me hopeful for our profession. Explore our 503B Facility! Training Equipment Facility Testing Quality Control And More! Witnessing these things in person also allowed me to get a better sense of how the company works and will let me continue to grow in my partnership with the Epicur/Stokes family. I am a proud supporter! Thank you for sharing these insights, Jamie! More Resources New USP Guidelines: What Changes Impact My Veterinarian Practice? 3 Reasons You Should Make the Switch to a 503B Pharmacy Partner 503A or 503B—Knowing When to Order from Each One
