Operating Hours: M-F 9-6pm EST quick search: over 10,000 products Prescription Prices Price Calculator Shopping Cart Current Order 0 items selected Medical Information Personalized Medicine Pharmacogenetic Testing Side Effects Weaning Off Medications Health Topics Bulletins Pharmacy.ca Using This Site About Us Certification Careers Contact Us This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here. Pharmacy.ca Personalized Medicine® and "Pill Splitting" Pharmacy.ca Personalized Medicine®, at its simplest, takes the manufacturer's available medication strengths and converts them into strengths that best suit your specific needs. Pill Splitting "Pill Splitting" has recently become popular with the availability of small, hand held pill splitters. These devices are usually comprised of a plastic jaw with a razor blade. With a pill splitter, scored medications usually split evenly and patients get a strength that reasonably approximates 50% of the original strength. However pill splitting is not something that should be carried out at home because: Manual splitters are relatively crude and often produce variable fragment sizes resulting in improper and variable dosing. Many medications break apart when split, resulting in two or more fragments and a considerable amount of powder. This powder also contains the active ingredient and is very difficult to recover. This results in variable and inaccurate dosing. Many medications come in odd shapes and have coatings that make splitting the pill in half quite difficult. Pill splitting results in large (50%) dosing steps and is not customized to the individual's need. Cutting enteric-coated medications may lead to stomach upset. Cutting slow release formulations results in rapid drug absorption and may cause a drug overdose. Pill splitting is best left to the trained professional with sophisticated equipment to ensure accurate and uniform dosing. Pharmacy.ca Personalized Medicine® Our Personalized Medicine service employs highly trained staff and a novel, patented "pill splitting" technology. Based on a patient's need, we can provide an almost infinite range of strengths. This means that an individual patient, with the help of their physician, can find just the right strength of medication to maximize therapeutic benefits and minimize undesirable side effects. More Reasons to Consider Pharmacy.ca Personalized Medicine® Services! The most common reason patients use our service is to get the medication strength that is ideal for them. There are other reasons patients access our service. Among them are: 1. To obtain an additive free medication because of an allergy to an additive. 2. To obtain medications no longer commercially available. 3. To save money. Additive Free In addition to the active ingredient, a typical tablet or capsule is made up of many non-medicinal ingredients. These are added to assist in the manufacturing process or to visually enhance a products esthetic appearance. Some people are sensitive to these non-medicinal ingredients. In many cases we are able to prepare a medication without the offending ingredient. A patient can thus enjoy the benefits conferred by the active ingredient without the side effects of the unnecessary additive. Not Commercially Available Over the past few years pharmaceutical manufacturers have discontinued many of their smaller product lines as a cost saving measure. Small production runs are expensive. Discontinuing these smaller products improves manufacturing efficiency and improves the firm's profitability. Patients who are well controlled on the product being discontinued must now go through a trial and error process to find a replacement. We are often able to custom prepare the previously available medication for such patients. Saving You Money Depending on the medication and the strengths required we may be able to compound your individual Personalized Medicine® at a lower cost than the commercially available medication strengths. Contact Us If you would like to discuss your personal medication needs with one of our pharmacists you can do so by simply calling toll free 1-800-727-5048 or emailing us at pharmacist@pharmacy.ca. Tell the technician that answers your call that you have some questions about Personalized Medicine and want to speak to a pharmacist. To provide the best advice possible it will be necessary for our pharmacist to know all of the medications you are taking. Please email us the list or have it ready when calling. Read more, click here... | home | prescriptions | non-prescription medicine | vitamins, herbals & nutrition | personal care | | allergy medicine | excessive sweating| arthritis | smoking cessation | hair loss | back pain | medical tests | 311 Sherbourne St, Toronto, On M5A 3Y1 1-416-960-7768 OCP Accreditation number 17533, owner is Central Medical Pharmacy Inc. Designated manager is Veronique Koo, B Sc Phm. Pharmacists are available for counselling during operating hours. The information provided on our site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to qualify, supplement or replace that of your medical professional. Your doctor or healthcare giver should undertake diagnosing and treating your medical condition. [c] © 1999 PurePharm Inc. All rights reserved Copyright and Legal Disclaimer.