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By PCCA


Something unusual happened at International Seminar 2019. In the afternoon of the second day, we cleared out a substantial portion of the fourth-floor foyer in the Hilton Americas-Houston where, just a couple hours earlier, attendees had enjoyed a Mediterranean-inspired lunch. In place of the tables and chairs, we constructed a laboratory environment with five compounding benches on top of black rubber matting. At 3:45 p.m., our Research and Development (R&D) team kicked off the first ever PCCA Formulation Challenge.

The Setup
This challenge was partially modeled after popular cooking show competitions like Iron Chef: Five teams of two compounders were presented with a hypothetical patient suffering from various health and cosmetic challenges, and they had 60 minutes to help that patient with the equipment, bases and ingredients provided. The teams each had a bench with an electronic mortar and pestle (EMP), a balance, and bottles of preserved water and isopropyl alcohol 70%. At the back of the lab space, the teams had access to mixing containers, such as EMP jars; lab devices and equipment, such as nitrile gloves and disposable weigh boats; and dispensing devices, such as MegaPumps® and double-walled ointment jars. They also had a shared “pantry” of bases and other ingredients, such as PracaSil®-Plus, VersaBase® Foam, Biopeptide Biocosmetic™, citric acid 10% (W/V) aqueous solution and palmitoyl pentapeptide-4. All of the ingredients were in the form of a cream, gel or liquid.
 

Masoud Rashidi (left) and Jim Hrncir (right) of team Macho Cosmo Compounders
pose before the start of the PCCA Formulation Challenge.

 

The Competitors
Compounders from all over the country had applied to participate in the competition. As part of their applications, they demonstrated their creative problem-solving abilities by submitting innovative formulas that their pharmacies had developed and successfully used to help patients. Applicants could select either a member of their pharmacy or someone from another pharmacy as their partner for the challenge, but each team needed to contain at least one registered pharmacist. An internal PCCA panel judged the applicants based on their creativity and ability to develop a formula from scratch. The competitors whom the panel selected formed five teams, each with a unique name that they chose for themselves:

  • Brooklyn In the House
    • Gopesh Patel, RPh, of VLS Pharmacy in Brooklyn, New York
    • Samantha Blakeney of VLS Pharmacy in Brooklyn, New York
  • Shake 'n' Bake
    • Greg Roberts, RPh, of Harbin Pharmacy in Birmingham, Alabama
    • John Herr, RPh, FIACP, of Town & Country Compounding & Consultations in Ridgewood, New Jersey
  • Macho Cosmo Compounders
    • Jim Hrncir, RPh, of Las Colinas Pharmacy in Irving, Texas
    • Masoud Rashidi, PharmD, of Innovative Compounding Pharmacy in Folsom, California
  • The Cocky Cougars
    • Jasper Lovoi, PharmD, of The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy in Shenandoah, Texas
    • Madison Peach-Keen, PharmD, of The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy in Shenandoah, Texas
  • Flip the Script
    • Chris Coleman, PharmD, of Chancy Drugs in Valdosta, Georgia
    • Omar Eliwa, RPh, of Welltopia Pharmacy in Thiensville, Wisconsin
 

Chris Coleman (left) and Omar Eliwa (right) of team Flip the Script
pose before the start of the PCCA Formulation Challenge.

 
The Challenge
A large crowd had formed around the competition area when the hosts and judges began the challenge. Daniel Banov, MS, RPh, PCCA Director of R&D, started the contest with all the energy of a boxing announcer, introducing the spectators to the contest over the speakers set up in the foyer. Then he handed it off to Fabiana Banov, MS, RPh, PCCA Senior Formulation Pharmacist, who introduced each team. Sarah DeCarlo, PCCA Marketing Manager, outlined the contest for the audience, followed by Christine Vu, BS, PCCA New Products and Formulation Chemist, explaining the stock of ingredients the contestants shared. To top off the introduction, Bernice Demond, PCCA Clinical Services Administrative Assistant, introduced the patient case.
 
Patient Case: A 45-year-old Asian woman comes to the pharmacy for a hormone consultation, but also has acne with scarring, large pores, excessively oily T-zone skin, and melasma. She explains that her facial breakouts begin gradually and vary in severity, and that they worsen during menses and never completely clear. Over-the-counter medications have not worked for her. She is also concerned about wrinkles and sagging skin around her eyes, and she has eczema flare-ups on her arms from time to time. She quit smoking five years ago. Finally, she enjoys running and gardening to reduce stress, has no known drug or food allergies, and is not asthmatic. 

The timer started and the compounders were off, a large digital screen set up on one side of the competition area counting down from 60:00. Each team feverishly reviewed the case that Bernice had just presented to them, discussed options, and surveyed the pantry of bases and ingredients. Fabiana offered commentary as she walked through the crowd and asked spectators their thoughts on who might win. Every few minutes, Daniel gave updates over the speakers as the competitors hurried back to their benches with containers, calculated and measured ingredients, and eventually started mixing in the EMPs. He alternated between relaying details of what the contestants were doing to the audience and letting the compounders know how much time they had left. Near the end of the challenge, the teams began filling dispensing containers with creams and serums, writing labels by hand, and applying them.


Greg Roberts (left) and John Herr (right) of team Shake ‘n’ Bake discuss ingredients
of the shared “pantry” during the PCCA Formulation Challenge.

 

Sixty minutes had passed quickly, and the teams all completed at least two preparations each, some contestants smiling and chatting as they cleaned their benches, others discussing their formulations and how they would showcase them to the judges and spectators. When the timer reached zero, Daniel called the contest to a halt. The compounders proudly presented their preparations to the audience one at a time, and then the judges walked around and asked specific questions of each team, tallying points and taking notes.


Samantha Blakeney (left) and Gopesh Patel (right) of team Brooklyn in the House
present their preparations while Daniel Banov (center) observes.

After the crowd and contestants had left, Daniel, Fabiana, Christine, Sarah and Bernice congregated at a table in the foyer to deliberate. They completed their evaluation rubrics, giving point values to each team based on five criteria: formulation design, creativity and originality of ideas, overall formula aesthetics and stability, presentation, and teamwork. Finally, they combined their scores and averaged them, determining the winning team.

The Results
The following day, the judges took the International Seminar main stage at 11 a.m., calling the teams up one by one. Daniel and Fabiana recapped the challenge and reiterated the judging criteria, congratulating all contestants on a very close competition. Finally, they announced the winners, the Master Formulators, who had created two compounded creams for the “patient” and presented them in an elegant, dual-chambered pump. The top team was The Cocky Cougars — Jasper Lovoi and Madison Peach-Keen of The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy. Jasper and Madison won two free registrations to International Seminar 2020; a pharmacy visit from a member of PCCA’s R&D team; a Formulation Challenge trophy with their pharmacy name engraved; and black custom lab coats embroidered with their names and their new titles, “Master Formulator.”
 


The judges and contestants congratulate The Cocky Cougars
as the winners of the PCCA Formulation Challenge.

The judges thanked the contestants for a successful challenge and closed the award ceremony by telling the audience in the ballroom to keep an eye out for details on next year’s Formulation Challenge, where they’ll find two more Master Formulators.
 



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