Pharmaceutical Preparations for Intradermal Drug Tests

Abstract Our department of pharmacy takes over all the medical skin tests prescribed by the allergy department. The production takes place in specific premises, with qualified and calibrated equipment, by a qualified and regularly assessed staff—in compliance with the French preparation guidelines. The whole activity is under the responsibility of a pharmacist—handlings are performed by hospital pharmacy technicians. Each new intradermal skin test demand leads to a feasibility analysis—irritating nature, dilution solvent, concentration—this information is gathered in a thesaurus. The manufacturing steps are the following: prescription validation, production sheet and label printing, preparation of the needed equipment, batch numbers and expiration date checking, handling under a vertical laminar flow hood and control after production. The preparation activity increases continuously and the thesaurus currently contents 302 rows with following information: drug, dilution and reconstitution solvent, pure solution concentration and maximum concentration to test with intradermal tests. Work would prospect in costs reduction and resources optimization. Thanks to the allergists’ confidence, the partnership between the two departments can go on. This guarantees the quality of the preparations tested on patients but also the skin tests reproducibility.