Compounding pharmacy
A compounding pharmacy is a licensed pharmacy that prepares a medication for an individual patient against a prescription.
Compounding exists to serve needs a manufactured product cannot — an alternative form, an excluded ingredient, a strength that is not commercially available.
The defining features are that a prescriber is involved, a pharmacist is accountable for what is dispensed, and the preparation happens under standards covering environment, process, and in some cases testing.
What it is not
A compounding pharmacy is not a manufacturer, and a compounded preparation is not an approved product: it has not been through the approval process a manufactured medicine has. It is also not the same as a research supplier, which involves no prescriber and no pharmacist at all.