This article was first published on 25 May 2022.
The article was updated on 9 August 2023, to reflect data as published in our 2022 annual report.
Fagron is a leading global company active in pharmaceutical compounding. We work together with pharmacists, prescribers, hospitals, and industry to make personalized medicine more accessible for patients. By adjusting medication to the specific situation of a patient, i.e. personalizing medicine, treatments become less invasive and accessible for more patients. This increases the effectiveness of treatment and improves the quality of life and the safety of a patient. Ultimately, personalized medicine also reduces healthcare costs. In this way, Fagron contributes to people’s health and well-being.
Are you curious to learn more about how we contribute? Keep reading!
What is pharmaceutical compounding?
Fagron is active in pharmaceutical compounding. You might wonder: What is pharmaceutical compounding? Pharmaceutical compounding is the manufacturing of non-patent-protected or unregistered pharmaceutical preparations by a pharmacist. A pharmaceutical preparation is always prepared based on a doctor’s prescription. This results in a not commercially available, personalized medicine to meet a patient’s specific needs. We have created a video about pharmaceutical compounding:
Pharmaceutical compounding enables a doctor to offer a patient a personalized treatment that is not commercially available. You can think of a personalized administration form or dosage when a patient is not able to use the standard available administration forms of an existing medication, for example when a patient has a problem swallowing or is allergic to an ingredient. Another form of personalization is an alternative dosage form, such as a topical dosage in the form of a cream instead of a pill. This can reduce side effects and the potential for addiction, for example when treating pain. In this way, we contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Good Health and Well-Being.
Our products
We have divided our products and services into three separate categories:
- Essentials
- Brands
- Compounding services
Essentials
Fagron started as a company that supplies pharmaceutical-grade raw materials to community and hospital pharmacies for pharmaceutical compounding. Because of an increase in demand and our continuous effort to support compounding pharmacies, we have expanded the product line with equipment and supplies. Today, we support pharmacists in EMEA, Latin America, and North America. We enable them to compound safe and high-quality products and to optimize their compounding process with our equipment and packaging. Our portfolio of Essentials includes pharmaceutical raw materials, equipment, packaging, and supplies required for pharmaceutical compounding.
Brands
Pharmacies and pharmaceutical compounding are becoming more regulated and quality requirements are becoming stricter. This means that there is a greater need for semi-finished products and pharmaceutical-grade vehicles that improve quality and reduce the workload for pharmacists. Under our Brands segment, Fagron develops new and innovative vehicles and equipment for pharmaceutical compounding in close cooperation with pharmacists, physicians, and universities. Our Brands’ products include emulsions, powder mixtures, creams, complete concepts, and equipment developed by Fagron. Furthermore, our Brands segment includes Fagron Genomics which specializes in the development, production, and marketing of innovative genetic tests. The use of these tests enables the prescription of the most suitable personalized therapy, particularly in lifestyle and preventative healthcare.
Two examples of our Brands products are:
Syrspend Neo (vehicle)
Syrspend Neo is specifically created for young children. Certain ingredients used in regular medication can be toxic for young children, such as colorants, parabens, and sugar. Syrspend Neo is free of these components which makes it suitable for all patient groups. Syrspend Neo consists of oral bases to which pharmacists can add active pharmaceutical ingredients to prepare a liquid medicine that young children can swallow.
Nourisil (concept)
Painful and untreated scars can reduce a patient’s well-being. This is why we developed Nourisil. This product works to prevent and treat scars and keloids (scars that occur after an injury to the skin) in children and adults. We use a silicone gel, which is the only type of treatment patients tolerate. It protects the skin by increasing hydration and collagen production and contains a high dose of Vitamin E further contributing to the protection of the skin.
Compounding services
Next to pharmaceutical raw materials and vehicles, Fagron began delivering non-sterile ready-to-dispense compounded medicine to pharmacies. Because of increasingly stricter regulations and a focus on quality and efficiency, pharmacies are also outsourcing their sterile compounding more and more. Fagron supplies sterile ready-to-administer medicines to hospital pharmacies in those countries where the regulation allows this. These sterile and non-sterile compounded products, which meet the specific needs of patients, are sold under the Compounding Services segment. Compounding Services uses the raw materials from Essentials and the vehicles from Brands for its compounding activities. Our Compounding Services segment also includes the sales of registered compounded medicine.
Non-sterile compounding is the preparation of specific medication for patients to swallow or apply to the skin, while sterile compounding relates to products injected into the bloodstream. Examples of sterile products are IV bags and syringes. Non-sterile products include tablets, capsules, creams, and ointments.
Quantifying our contribution
Because we do not deliver directly to the patient, it is difficult to quantify our positive contribution. We do not know how many patients use medication that has been compounded with our Brands & Essentials products. We do know the units of sterile and non-sterile compounded medication that we have prepared in our compounding services locations. In 2022, Fagron supplied around 11.2 million units of compounding medication.
Want to know more about our products? You can find product stories here and more information about our Brands here.
Follow our ESG journey
We are working non-stop to realize our targets and want to be transparent about our results and activities. Annual progress can be followed in our most recent annual report. We also report on progress during the year in the news segment on our website and on LinkedIn.
If you have any questions or suggestions on what we could do to improve, you can reach us at ESG@fagron.com.
