From APC's President: Tactics and strategies
Dear A4PC,
If you are a business owner or manager and you have never read Sun Tzu's The Art of War, I suggest run, don't walk, to your local bookstore (support your indie brick-and-mortar neighbors!) and grab a copy.
Written more than 2,400 years ago, it codifies the "rules" of warfare, which, if followed meticulously, ensure victory.
But Sun Tzu's short, incisive blueprint for battlefield strategy applies to much more than war. It’s as relevant to today's ‘combatants’ in business, politics, and everyday life as it was to the warlords of ancient China.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” —Sun Tzu
The Art of War has directly or indirectly formed the foundation of thousands of books on military history and strategic thinking.
But what exactly is strategy? Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz — a close second to Sun Tzu when it comes to writing military classics — said in On War that war is fought in a series of engagements.
Planning and executing each engagement is tactics.
Coordinating those engagements to win the war is strategy.
Why all this talk of war and fighting in a compounding newsletter? Because, as a compounding professional, you are at war with a powerful adversary, one that has unlimited time and resources at its disposal.
Last week the APC Board of Directors met to review your association's strategic ends. Simply put, our goal — ‘winning the war’ — is providing APC members an environment necessary for success as pharmacy compounding professionals. Our strategies to achieve this goal are advocacy, ethics, access, knowledge, and community.
In the weeks and months ahead you will continue to hear about the Compounding Professional's Code of Ethics (ethics) as well as the cBHT Media Campaign and CompPAC (political advocacy). Your association will submit amicus curiae briefs in lawsuits challenging the MOU, and will write letters to agencies in support of compounding from pure API (access). And, with the live portion of EduCon soon to be behind us, next month APC will host its first ever Compounding Pharmacy Owner Summit. In September we will all meet — fingers crossed — in Washington, D.C., for Compounders on Capitol Hill (both advocacy and knowledge/community).
For APC to be successful, we need you involved. We do not need to match our adversary's resources, but we do need to make sure we have sufficient resources to execute our tactics successfully. Join a committee. Recruit new members. Give to CompPAC, give to OneFund, and give to the cBHT Media Campaign — as much and as often as you can. These are sound, reasonable tactics that support our ultimate strategic end: protecting your profession. Sun Tzu would be proud.
Mike
Michael Blaire, RPh, FIACP is APC's president; his day job is vice president for government and regulatory affairs at Wedgewood Pharmacy in Scottsdale, Arizona. You can reach him at mblaire@wedgewoodpharmacy.com.
Download the Code
The Pharmacy Compounding Professional’s Code of Ethics — following it is important for every member of your team. You and they must be focused on quality, patient safety, and 100 percent compliance all the time.
You can read the code at A4PC.org/codeofethics, but now you can also download a high-res version suitable for printing and hanging in your pharmacy or facility.
Just go to A4PC.org/downloadthecode to view and download the PDF version.
Task force submits BUD recommendations
APC sent a list of formal recommendations to the USP CEC subcommittee that’s grappling with the issue of BUDs in Chapter <795>. Under the chairmanship of APC member Tenille Davis of Scottsdale, Arizona, the Beyond-Use Date Task Force researched, deliberated, and developed these recommendations.
You can click here to read the letter sent to Gus Bassani, chairman of USP’s CEC <795>Subcommittee (just three pages), which includes all those recommendations.
And yes, the task force is also developing recommendations on BUDs for Chapter <797>. Stay tuned.
If you ship out-of-state, read this
If you ship compounded preparations out-of-state, take note: We're offering an hour-long review of state compounding-related laws and regs that changed in 2020, as well as some that are being proposed for this year. Join David Kosar for the one-hour tour of what's gone down, and what's coming up — so you can stay compliant. Click here to register!
Reminder: Student needs your help
USC doctoral candidate Victor Gangi still need help with a short short online survey. The topic: Industry views of the regulatory framework for drug compounding in the U.S., from both 503A compounding pharmacies and 503B outsourcing facilities.
Please click here to take the survey (and feel free to share it with your colleagues) — the deadline is February 13. Thank you!
Announcing the 2021 PCF/PMIC Scholarship winners!
Congratulations to the 2021 winners of the Pharmacy Compounding Foundation and Pharmacists Mutual Compounding Scholarship — awards to pharmacy students who have demonstrated commitment to a career in compounding pharmacy in the USA.
- Jacob Sweet, Rootstown, Ohio (Northeast Ohio Medical University)
- Marianne Vandiver, Clinton, S.Car. (Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy)
Coming up
March 2; 2:00-3:00p.m. EST — CE webinar: "Survey of State Compounding Law Changes 2020 and Proposed 2021"
March 26–27, 2021 — APC’s 2021 Compounding Pharmacy Owner Summit
June 10–11, 2021 — PCCA Act Conference (virtual)
September 14–15, 2021 — Compounders on Capitol Hill (mark your calendars!)
ICYMI
Please take our cBHT messaging survey: It will help us choose the best for patients, prescribers, and legislators — the people we’re trying to reach with our communications program to help save cBHT. Take it at a4pc.org/cbhtmessage, and thank you for you help!
USP has a new Covid-19 vaccine handling toolkit, “Operational Considerations for Healthcare Practitioners.” The first section is now available, providing “strategies that can support health care practitioners in preparing and administering vaccines at different locations by different individuals as well as guidance on pre-drawing vaccine into syringes for efficient administration.”
FDA committee nominations: FDA is calling for self-nominations for several committees, and we encourage pharmacists to participate — let’s increase the profession’s presence on these federal advisory committees!
USP is offering a free sanitizer training webinar: “Ensuring Quality Hand Sanitizer Production During COVID-19” on two dates: February 23, 2021 - For Manufacturers and February 24, 2021 - For Healthcare Professionals. Click either link to register.
We've hit the 3,100 3,200 mark (!) for testimonials about the effectiveness of cBHT (from patients, prescribers, and compounders). That sounds like a lot, but we need more! The more testimonials we have for each congressional district, the better, so please continue to spread the word: Go to A4PC.org/cbhtandme and tell us your story!
