The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (IACP) are joining forces to increase the legislative and regulatory effectiveness of pharmacists who engage in compounding.

"The federal government has shown a proclivity for pursuing and adopting unwarranted and unnecessary policies when it comes to pharmacy compounding as was recently demonstrated by their arbitrary ban of estriol in compounded medications for bioidentical hormone replacement therapy," said Bruce T. Roberts, RPh, NCPA executive vice president and chief executive officer. "NCPA and IACP are committed to joining forces whenever possible to ensure patient access to medications created through compounding is not endangered."

In addition to the estriol battle, both groups have been aligned in numerous other areas in the past and are likely to be in the future. For instance, in 2007, both groups fought back 3 separate attempts in Congress to assume the current responsibility of the State Boards of Pharmacies in regulating certain aspects of pharmacy compounding.