Interesting Times...."interesting measures"...Repackaging

Interesting times ..... interesting measures....

Have you heard of compounding and/or repackaging propofol.?
Given all of the safe injection practice concerns and shortages... Is this a viable option?

The process is: The drug is drawn from the original vial via a sterile syringe and injected through a port into a sterile bab. The product is placed into a bag through a sterile tube that passes the propofol through a sterile repeater pump example calibrated to dispense the correct amount into a new, empty sterile vial.

The product is always repackaged through this sterile,closed process without ever becoming exposed to the elements.

The example: from each 100ml vial, they repackage into 20 5-ml single dose vials, allowing for 20 patient applications instead of one..
The cost is $50! for each 5 ml vial plus this company estimates the cost of 100 ml vial at $170!
That would be a total cost of $50 x 20 plust $170= $1,170.00 for the repackaging!!!!!

They claim to save you the cost of $3400 (20 x170) less the $1,170.00 for the repackaging or a total savings of $2230.0


This is the type of situation and perceived panic and alternatives which people are falling prey to during this critical time.

There are much better and safer sedation options out their and newer and better alternatives including imported propofol and Lusedra (fospropofol).

No solution is perfect.. but look at the costs and upsides of other plans. Anesthesiologists and anesthestetists tend to be perfectionists and sometimes are creatures of habit and this has us thinking outside our comfort zones.

Just my thoughts..
Stan