Asheville – Shelton Compounding Pharmacy in Hendersonville is now under new ownership. Philip Nelson stated that he took the helm because “unexpected divine guidance told me to buy the store, and it’s something I didn’t want to do.”
Nelson earned his PharmD degree from Idaho State University in 2009 and completed residencies in Wisconsin and Texas. He moved to Asheville to work as a clinical pharmacist at the VA Hospital, where he assisted patients in managing diabetes, pain, and other health conditions. He even practiced acupuncture on patients, which he noted helped some of them.
He mentioned that he “moved forward with nervous faith” when he approached Larry Shelton about purchasing his business. “Larry was about 74 years old, so he was going to retire at some point. He said the only reason he hadn’t was that he enjoyed working at his pharmacy too much.” Nelson suspected that Shelton would still be there if he hadn’t offered to buy.
Nelson admitted he had no prior experience running a business, so he spent a year learning as much as possible about both business management and compounding. In fact, he earned over 100 continuing education credits that year. “I wanted to do as good as I could.” After a year in business, he feels he knows significantly more than when he started. “As a small business owner, I wear a lot of hats.”
Compounding pharmacies prepare prescription medications in alternative dosages and customized strengths. Some patients opt for compounded medications because they are allergic to or averse to consuming the dyes and other fillers found in industrial products.
Patients do not bring medicine bottles to the store and request remade pills. Instead, Shelton Compounding typically uses powders without additives to create capsules, suspensions, creams, nasal rinses, suppositories, sublingual doses, and more. Nelson stated that the FDA requires the amount of active ingredients in compounded medications to fall within 10% of the prescribed dose, which he claims is similar to what drug companies must adhere to. Currently, Nelson does not prepare injections at his facility, as that would require additional certifications.
Compounding medications for pets accounts for about 25% of Shelton’s business. They also offer various alternative medication therapies that Nelson believes are more than mere quackery. Approximately 50% of their business involves bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. He remarked that it’s “not mainstream U.S. medical treatment, but a lot of people feel better because of it,” and noted that Oprah recently featured a segment on it.
Celebrity endorsements may not sway Asheville’s large medical community, so UpToDate.com was consulted to assess where established medicine stands. They reported, “We agree with a number of expert groups, including the Menopause Society, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Endocrine Society, all of whom advise against the use of custom-compounded hormones, most importantly because of the lack of stringent quality controls regarding purity and dosing.”
Nelson explained that people have been steered away from hormone replacement therapy over the years due to research indicating concerns with synthetic or chemically altered hormones. The hormones used at Shelton’s are bioidentical and typically derived from yams.
Nelson stated that Shelton’s operates on three focal points: wellness, quality, and connection. When asked what the compounding community was connecting with, he replied, “with each other. If you need some help, we help you.” He noted that they have real people answering the phone, and one of the technicians has an exceptional talent for remembering people by name.
Regarding wellness, he said, “We help people feel and function better. We operate outside the typical U.S. medical model, which is more focused on sick-care rather than wellness and preventive medicine.” When asked if Shelton’s provided clinical consultations as done in the Asheville Model, he clarified that they currently only compound medications but definitely make referrals. Visit Shelton’s at 2315 Asheville Highway, Hendersonville.