The compounded pharmacy market in the Philippines is seen growing 1.8 percent higher this year to around P212 billion from its level in 2025, personalities at the PRIMA ASEAN Congress in Taguig City said.
This was in keeping with projected industry expansion across Asia-Pacific, as the fastest-growing region, averaging 5.9 percent a year up to 2034.
According to executives at compounding pharmacy Ascend RX, there are only 10 of the specialist companies accredited and licensed by authorities in the Philippines.
Xenia Ruth Limatoc, head of regulatory and compliance at Ascend RX, demand for personalized medicine and individualized dosing is rising due either to drug shortages or discontinued products.
Benjamin G. Topacio, who heads the company’s sales unit, said compounded pharmacists like themselves address the gaps in patient care unmet by standard commercial medicine providers.
Ascend RX head Marjorie Manrique-Vizco explained it best by saying the need is addressed by preparing patient-specific medication as requested by prescription. Doses are either raised or lowered, converted into oral or topical application, with flavor added, or otherwise injected as may be the case. Such may be formulated should the requirement be unavailable in the commercial market.
Of the roughly 29,000 licensed drugstores and retail pharmacists in the country, only a handful offer compounding services. The 10 that operate in the Philippines compare against 7,500 in the United States, 500 in Australia, seven in Malaysia and only three in Singapore.
The executives said compounding is a specialist discipline and not a retail service requiring a licensed pharmacist, validated procedures and a dedicated cleanroom infrastructure for sterile work whose existence requires a separate Food and Drug Administration license beyond a standard drugstore permit. JV
