Compounding Matters Quarterly - Spring 2015

IACP FOUNDATION HISTORY
by Lisa D. Ashworth, BS Pharm, RPh
Will Rogers said, “If you want to be successful, it’s just
this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you
are doing. And believe in what you are doing. “
This is why, in 1991, a group of passionate compounding
pharmacists formed Professionals and Patients for
Customized Care (P2C2). Originally consisting of less
than 300 members, its mission was to protect the
birthright of pharmacy, the practice of compounding.
In 1996, P2C2 changed its name to the International
Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (IACP),
expanded its mission and scope, and had grown to
almost 4,000 pharmacist, technician and student
pharmacist members.
In hitting the stride of those teenage years, IACP was
seeing constant change in the highly complex and everevolving
world of the art and science of compounding
medications for humans and animals, not unlike today,
this shifting landscape presented challenges.
In the Spring of 2003, the IACP Board established the
non-profit IACP Foundation to acquire its own physical
space for IACP and the IACP Foundation offices (that
was housed at Professional Compounding Centers
of America (PCCA) since its inception) and pursue
growth along with endeavors to provide scientific data
supporting compounding. The “Bricks, Mortar and
Pestle: Building a Foundation for the Future” Capital
Campaign was launched to raise $1.5 million for the
new facility as well as establish an endowment to
support research and education for the profession of
pharmacy, specifically compounding. One million dollars
would go to secure or acquire a building for IACP to
establish a permanent home and prepare for growth as
well as honor achievement within our profession and
$500,000 to establish an endowment. Protection and
advancement of the compounding profession were of
the utmost importance.
As the first-ever permanent endowment in the field of
compounding pharmacy, the Foundation pledged to
fund research studies and develop programs to:
• Raise awareness with consumers and healthcare
professionals of the critical role compounding
pharmacists play in promoting patient health
• Develop and validate best practices for pharmacy
compounding
• Promote studies to ensure employee safety and
quality of medications (e.g. effectiveness, stability)
• Advocate for basic scholastic education and training
necessary for compounding in pharmacy school /
college curriculums
• Promote programs that facilitate interested students
to pursue a career in this profession (e.g. scholarships)
• Enhance the credibility and reputation of pharmacy
compounding
The support from the compounding community was
phenomenal, the goal of $1.5 million was met…and
exceeded.
In a suite at the Washington Court Hotel, Washington,
DC in the summer of 2003, a group of around 40
pharmacists who were passionate advocates for
compounded medications convened to establish the
Research arm for the Foundation. Our goals were to
develop a grant application process, determine what
kinds of studies we wanted to fund and when we were
going to start distributing funding.
20 Spring 2015 | IACPRx.org/Publications