Comment of compounded drugs

There is some contraversy over "compounding" drugs by independant pharmacies. Laws don't regulate the final products. Following the date of this post, press reportes of mistakes, fraud, and death have occured as a result of independant pharmacist compounding.-dras

Compounded drugs are not name-brand prescriptions available through chain drugstores. The drugs are customized medications, usually mixed in independent pharmacies that do not have to follow the same safety procedures as big drug-makers. Retail pharmacies can compound drugs only for prescriptions -- they cannot be distributed wholesale.

Compounding that is NOT alt-med might be when one dilutes the eye-dropper bottle of albuteral with saline or sterile water to create single dose vials, then adds concentrate inhalants, thus avoiding the cost of manufacturer single-dose vials and multiple prescriptions. Also, I suspect prescription meds can be "doctored-up" (ie flavored, crushed, etc.) to avoid NDC set prices.

Also, can the argument be made that any legislation is more about protecting Big Pharm's patents and payments, and less about protecting the consumer? Or more about preventing death from overly dilute drugs, or contamination by compounding under less than factory conditions?
http://www.iacprx.org
http://www.asipp.org/Steroids/FDA%20takes.htm
Linked from asipp: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/23/MN12273.DTL&type=printable