Small-scale preparations in Sweden. Extemporaneous preparations and stock preparations at eleven community pharmacies.

Small-scale preparations, i.e. non-registered drugs that are extemporaneously prepared for each patient or made in larger batches for stock keeping, form a small but important group of drugs, especially for patients with rare diseases or allergies. Small-scale preparations are not included in the otherwise comprehensive statistics compiled by the National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies and this makes knowledge of the use of these drugs limited. The occurrence of small-scale preparations was studied at eleven community pharmacies over a three-year period (1987-1989) by analysis of the orders from the pharmacies to the four production units of the National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies in the first quarter of each study year. The number of small-scale preparations dispensed were compared with the total sales of drugs at each pharmacy. The proportion of small-scale preparations in the total drug sales was about 1.5% throughout the study period, but there were fluctuations over time at the individual pharmacies. The most common dosage forms were creams, liniments and mixtures. Dermatological drugs in different dosage forms were the most frequent (almost 50%). This was probably because of the necessity for a great variety of different strengths among these drugs.