Wedgewood Pharmacy and Midwest Veterinary Supply sign new agency agreement

(Swedesboro NJ, October 1, 2007) Wedgewood Pharmacy and Midwest Veterinary Supply, Inc. (Burnsville MN) have entered an agency agreement through which Midwest will represent Wedgewood’s compounding pharmacy services to 9,000 veterinary clinics in 27 states. The relationship is effective October 1. This is the first time that Midwest has represented a compounding pharmacy service.

Through the Midwest relationship, Wedgewood’s compounding services will be offered to veterinarians through a full-time sales force of more than 100 people.

Wedgewood Pharmacy is the largest veterinary compounding pharmacy in the U.S. and serves more than 20,000 prescribers. Midwest Veterinary Supply is a wholesale distributor of veterinary pharmaceuticals, biologicals, equipment and instruments. The company also provides practice support and in-clinic training services.

A compounding pharmacy creates customized medications for individual patients in response to a licensed practitioner’s prescription when a medication is no longer commercially available or is required in a different dosage or form. Wedgewood serves more than 20,000 prescribers nationwide with industry-leading, innovative compounding methods that help to improve animal owner compliance.

For example, Wedgewood recently introduced the Gourmeds™ service, which provides commonly prescribed medications in chewable, naturally flavored tablets that use the same high-quality chicken and fish meals that provide the palatable, proven flavors in leading-brand pet foods. The company also recently introduced Twist-A-Dose™, a new type of syringe-delivery package for transdermal gels that improves accuracy and lowers costs compared with older plunger-type syringes.

Midwest Veterinary Supply, Inc. is a family/employee-owned full-line distributor of veterinary products including veterinary pharmaceuticals, biologicals, equipment and instruments to more than 9,000 veterinary clinics in 27 states. Headquartered in Burnsville (MN), Midwest represents more than 300 suppliers including most major manufacturers. Its sales force includes both field representatives who call on clinics directly and inside sales-representatives who answer product questions, provide information about promotional programs and service clinic needs over the phone.

Established in 1961, Midwest has five shipping branches that provide next-day delivery and six call centers located in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Maryland. For more information visit www.midwestvet.net

A compounding pharmacy creates customized medications for individual patients in response to a licensed practitioner’s prescription. Wedgewood Pharmacy is one of the largest compounding pharmacies in the United States, serving more than 25,000 prescribers of compounded medications. It is located in Swedesboro NJ and licensed throughout the United States.

Because every patient is different and has different needs, customized, compounded medications are a vital part of quality medical care. The basis of the profession of pharmacy has always been the "triad," the patient-prescriber-pharmacist relationship.

Through this relationship, patient needs are determined by a prescriber, who chooses a treatment regimen that may include a compounded medication. Prescribers often prescribe compounded medications for reasons that include (but are not limited to) the following situations:

• When needed medications are discontinued by or generally unavailable from pharmaceutical companies, often because the medications are no longer profitable to manufacture;
• When the patient is allergic to certain preservatives, dyes or binders in available off-the shelf medications;
• When treatment requires tailored dosage strengths for patients with unique needs (for example, an infant);
• When a pharmacist can combine several medications the patient is taking to increase compliance;
• When the patient cannot ingest the medication in its commercially available form and a pharmacist can prepare the medication in cream, liquid or other form that the patient can easily take; and
• When medications require flavor additives to make them more palatable for some patients.

For additional information, visit the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists’ Web site at www.iacprx.org and www.compoundingfacts.org.