A reliable source for high purity, high quality nutritional supplements
HRI Pharmacy was established in 1995 as a result of problems with patient compliance. Because many Pfeiffer patients - particularly children – were experiencing difficulty in swallowing many separate nutrient supplements at a time, it was decided to provide facilities for compounding nutrients on an individual basis into the smallest number of capsules possible in each case. This has resulted in greatly improved compliance with treatment.
Two qualified pharmacists and 24 licensed technicians staff the Pharmacy. It is affiliated with Midwestern University, which attaches pharmacy students to HRI Pharmacy on a rotational basis for training incompounding techniques.
Visit the Health Research Institute Pharmacy
Quality Control
The Pharmacy is meticulous in ensuring the highest purity and quality of the compounded supplements supplied – a crucial factor in maintaining the effectiveness of Pfeiffer treatment. Every effort is made to ensure the highest quality of raw materials, ascrupulously clean compounding room, hygienicmachinery and a controlled atmosphere throughout the pharmacy.
Capsuling machinery is cleaned after completing each order and taken apart and cleaned daily. A triple check system is in place to ensure that each patient gets the right capsules in the right bottles. The pharmacy is temperature controlled for stability, sunlight is excluded and refrigerators are monitored daily for temperature stability.
Raw materials are purchased only from companies that take strict measures to ensure only high quality materials are supplied. The suppliers quarantine raw materials when received and test for the presence of toxic heavy metals. They then subject the materials to high-pressure liquid chromatography testing to ensure that the product or nutrient is exactly what it purports to be. Phytochemical (plant-based) materials are tested to ensure that the active product is present in the required potency.
Price and delivery time
HRI Pharmacy supplies compounded supplements to Australian patients post-free with minimal time delay at prices that compare very favourably with those from analternative source in Australia. MT Primer and Promoter and other manufactured supplements prescribed by Pfeiffer-trained medical practitioners are also delivered post-free by HRI Pharmacy if ordered at the same time as compounded supplements.
MT Primer and Promoter
Dr William Walsh, Scientific Director of HRI-PTC,developed these supplements to meet specific needs of many Pfeiffer patients with mental, behavioural and autistic disorders. All profits from the sale of these supplements through HRI Pharmacy go to support further research by HRI and to assist patients to access Pfeiffer Treatment Center who would otherwise be unable to do so because of lack of funds.
HRI Pharmacy does not manufacture these products, however, because the pharmacy is licensed only to compound nutrient supplements on an individual basis but not for manufacturing products in quantity. MT Primer and Promoter are manufactured for HRI Pharmacy by a laboratory in Houston, Texas that has raw materials testing and quality control standards similar to those described above.
MT Primer and Promoter are currently being manufactured by another laboratory in Australia. As a result of complaints about these by some Australian families, HRI-PTC arranged for independent comparative testing on a "blinded" basis of MT Primer and Promoter product samples from the Houston laboratory and the Australian laboratory. The report indicated that the Australian laboratory's product contained
- 120% more lead
- 40% more mercury
- 40% more copper
- 35% more cadmium
than the product from the Houston laboratory. Such metal levels are potentially damaging to chemically sensitive patients.
[NOTE: It is impossible to avoid trace amounts of these metals, even in the most sterile of conditions. The Houston Laboratory product contains minimal amounts of these contaminants.]
[Information based on a talk by Suzanne Speckman RPh, Executive Director HRI-PTC, at Pfeiffer Sydney Outreach Conference, 11 February 2006]
Bio-Balance comment
In the light of the above information, we recommend that compounded supplements, MT Primer and Promoter and other manufactured supplement products be ordered from HRI Pharmacy, at least until other products have been shown to reach the same high standards.