Hong Kong customs officers have arrested an alleged mastermind in a massive international fake pharmaceutical drug-smuggling syndicate in the first joint operation with US customs and the US Food and Drug Administration.

The United States is seeking a warrant to extradite the 27-year-old Chinese suspect, and he could face up to 10 years in jail and a US$2 million (HK$15.6 million) fine if he is convicted of smuggling and conspiracy to defraud, according to Ben Leung Lun- cheung of the Customs Drug Investigation Bureau.

Millions of fake Viagra and Cialis tablets were seized in the United States in the past few months, where other arrests were made, Leung said.

US and Hong Kong authorities tracked down the suspect who was distributing the drugs via the Internet.

In an undercover operation, an officer posing as a potential buyer met with the distributor in Hong Kong.

Leung said the man offered 400,000 tablets at a price of US$100,000 even though the market value would have been worth US$4.4 million. One tablet of Viagra is worth about US$11.

The Chinese national, believed to be surnamed Xu, claimed to be a businessman. He was arrested at 1.40pm in a hotel Thursday.

The undercover officer found the man articulate and fluent in English, Leung said.

Four tablets of fake Cialis and 24 tablets of fake Viagra were seized.

Leung said he believed the man had been distributing two types of pharmaceuticals: counterfeit tablets, which masquerade under a more respectable brand name; and totally fake tablets which have no pharmaceutical effect at all.

"The appearance of the tablets, and the overall packaging of the products are very similar to the real thing," Leung said.

The arrested man "is a very, very key player," distributing the fake drugs to Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia, he said.

However, local authorities are still investigating the manufacturing base of the syndicate and Leung said there may be more operations in the future in relation to this case.

Leung said the arrest was a landmark operation for Hong Kong in combating the smuggling of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, but denied it was an indication of a growing problem in Hong Kong.

He pointed to figures which showed in 2004 that 16,000 fake Viagra tablets were seized, while only 4,600 were seized last year. In the first eight months of this year 16,000 fake Viagra tablets had been seized, but Leung said this was still no indication of an increasing trend.

Accompanying Leung at the press briefing Friday were representatives from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Food and Drug Administration, who praised the Hong Kong officers for their dedication and professionalism. FDA special agent Daniel Burke said they approached the investigation with a "sincere desire to protect public health and to ensure the safety and integrity of the world's pharmaceutical supply chain."

Leung said the sharing of intelligence and the cooperation in the operation showed the level of trust between the authorities on either side of the Pacific Ocean.

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

The 'postcode lottery' effect seems to be diminishing, with medicines becoming widely available

THE use of cancer drugs in England has grown rapidly, and there is less evidence of "postcode prescribing", according to a new report.

The figures, to be announced today in a speech by Mike Richards, the National Cancer Director, show great changes in prescribing over quite a short period, between the second half of 2003 and the first half of 2005. Professor Richards's investigation stemmed from criticism from charities and drug companies that, even when approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), cancer drugs were not being used widely enough to make a difference.


The NHS is traditionally slow to adopt new drugs, something that NICE was set up to correct. But the evidence was that the system was not working. Professor Richards found, in a report in June 2004, that there was considerable variation in the uptake of drugs between different regional cancer networks.

A lack of money did not explain the differences, which appeared to be attributable to the way that services were organised, and different opinions between cancer specialists on prescription. The professor made recommendations aimed at reducing this variation and ensuring that good drugs were used more widely.

Today, in a speech at a Health Service Journal conference, he will announce that a second study has shown considerable improvements.

The use of cancer drugs increased sharply in the 18 months between the two surveys, by an average of just under 50 per cent. For some drugs, such as rituximab (MabThera), for lymphoma, and temozolomide (Temodal), for the brain cancer glioma, usage roughly doubled in that time.

The use of trastuzumab (Herceptin), for breast cancer, rose by 55 per cent, and imatinib (Glivec), for chronic myeloid leukaemia, by 70 per cent. Both drugs are well known and highly effective.

The report also includes encouraging signs that where patients live now matters rather less than it did in terms of cancer drug prescription.

Professor Richards compared the networks that use the most cancer drugs with those that use the least. In 2003 those at the top of the scale were typically using three or four times as much of the cancer drugs as those at the bottom. By last year the gap had narrowed to between two and three times as much — about twice as much for the most common and widely used.

In the case of Herceptin, for example, ratio fell from just over 4:1 to just under 3:1.

"For every single cancer drug, we are seeing a reduction in the variation," Professor Richards said. "We haven't eliminated all variation but we are moving in the right direction and the recommendations of the first report are beginning to pay off."

He does not expect to see such variations disappear. Some are due to individual clinicians' judgments, some to the patient mix in an area, or the sending of particular types of patient to a different area for treatment. There are also un- certainties about the data.

"But taking all that into account, this is good news," he said. "We are moving in the right direction."

Rosie Winterton, the Health Minister, welcomed the report. "It is fundamental that all cancer patients should have the same access to cancer drugs that have been approved by NICE, no matter where they live," she said. "I am delighted that the cancer director's report shows that considerable progress has been made.

"However, that does not mean we will be complacent — we recognise that there is still more to do. As more people are diagnosed with cancer each year, the NHS must keep improving cancer services so each and every patient receives the best treatment possible."

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

Medicare prescription drug plans cover 75% of cancer drugs, according to study conducted by Avalere Health and published in the September/October issue of Health Affairs, Dow Jones reports. The study examines CMS data from January and February on 3,000 Medicare PDPs (Gerencher, Dow Jones, 9/18). Researchers focused on two classes of cancer drugs called anti-neoplastics and hormonal agents. They did not examine data on infused chemotherapy drugs, drugs used mainly for cancer supportive care or oral cancer drugs covered by Medicare Part B (Bowman et al., Health Affairs, September/October 2006). Under the 2003 Medicare law, Medicare PDPs are required to cover "all or substantially all" anti-neoplastics. Lead author Jennifer Bowman, director in the Medicare practice at Avalere Health, said the study finds that the drug plans cover 99% to 100% of generic cancer drugs and about 70% of brand-name cancer drugs. She added, "Brands are covered less frequently than generics, but it turns out brands that were not covered almost always had a generic equivalent available." For example generic tamoxifen is covered by 100% of stand-alone prescription drug plans and nearly 100% of integrated drug plans, but Nolvadex -- the brand-name for tamoxifen -- is covered by 29% of plans, Bowman said. In addition, the study finds that copayments for 30-day supplies of cancer drugs range from $5 to $40. Tarceva has a $40 copay, the highest median copay of the drugs studied. Bowman said. The study also finds that 10% of drugs require prior authorization, 5% of all PDPs limit quantities of medications and no plans require step therapy, in which patients must first try lower-priced drugs before receiving coverage for more expensive treatment, Bowman said. The study did not examine beneficiaries' access to drugs during the so-called "doughnut hole" coverage gap (Dow Jones, 9/19). An abstract of the study is available online.

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Using bar coding in the hospital pharmacy may help prevent dangerous prescription errors, according to a new study.


Reporting in the Sept. 19 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston compared the rates of medication dispensing errors before and after bar coding technology was implemented at the hospital pharmacy.

With the new technology, every dose of medication was affixed with a bar code, and these codes were scanned in as an additional step to ensure that the right medications were being dispensed. Without the bar coding, the pharmacists relied on visual inspections alone to make sure they were dispensing the right medication.

After implementing the bar coding technology, the rate of dispensing errors fell by 85 percent, and the rate of dispensing errors with the potential to harm patients fell by 63 percent.

The bar coding technology was most effective when it required the pharmacy staff to scan all doses of medications.

"Overall, the use of bar code scanning technology appears to have a significant impact on the rate of dispensing errors that were serious enough to potentially harm patients," lead author Eric Poon, an associate physician in the hospital's department of general medicine, said in a prepared statement.

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

Cancer medications can cost several thousand dollars a month. Knowing the tough decision some patients have to make about their medication, one Austin-based pharmacist decided not to profit from cancer medicine anymore.

CBS 42 Medical Watch reporter Seema Mathur looked into the cost of cancer medication.

The online www.smartchoicedrugstore.com based in Austin has been filling prescriptions for about a year.

Then, a recent phone call from a cancer patient prompted the founder to rethink how they sell cancer medications.

"Should we be making a profit at all on cancer medications and the bottom line was no," said Chatrick Clark, CEO of www.smartchoicedrugstore.com. "We shouldn't be doing that and that's how the program started."

At the pharmacy, a pharmacy technician lets a caller from Iowa know they are selling all cancer drugs at cost, with zero profit.

"We'd be saving her about $160 every three months so she was very excited," said pharmacy tech Kara Perez with smartchoicedrugstore.com.

An example of the savings www.smartchoicedrugstore.com says they can offer on cancer medications: 30 pills of tamoxifin is sold for $71.99 at Walgreens...
Smart choice offers it for $9.79. Thirty tablets of tarceva costs $3, 176.19 cents at Walgreens, compared to $2,602.

The same quantity of arimidex is sold for $275.99 at Walgreens; smartchoicedrugstore.com sells it at $212.16.

"They need those drugs to live and why should they decide between staying alive and making an electric bill payment," pharmacist Judy Welch said.

This online drug store still plans to be successful, but not at the expense of cancer patients.

Experts say in the last year the cost of cancer drugs climbed 15-percent, five times more than other prescriptions.

The pharmacist at smartchoicedrugstore.com says that even for people who have insurance, often the insurance won't pay for all cancer medications. And that was one of the reasons smartchoicedrugstore.com singled out cancer medicine to not make a profit on.

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

A recent report from the Institute of Medicine states that at least 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by medication errors that could have been prevented. Nothing disturbs me — and my fellow pharmacists — more than medication errors in hospitals. It's a significant problem that needs to be fixed and I have good reason to hope that it will be. I firmly believe we will see a significant reduction in medication errors as new systems are put in place and proactive education takes hold in our region and nationwide.

Why am I hopeful? We are in the midst of several major movements in patient safety and quality, driven by health-care powerhouses. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation's predominant standards-setting and accrediting body in health care, has taken on this problem rigorously. In one small but dramatic example, this agency now requires hospitals to stop using certain abbreviations in patient orders that previously caused a host of problems.

Here's one example to illustrate the problem: The abbreviation "QD" is Latin and short for "daily." It could be misread as the abbreviation "QID," which is short for "four times daily." You can see how one letter makes a world of difference. By eliminating potentially confusing abbreviations in patient charts, lives can be saved and harm prevented.

Drugs that have similar names can have seriously different consequences when they are prescribed. For this reason, many hospitals have adopted "Tall Man Lettering," which graphically emphasizes the differences between two look-alike, sound-alike drugs by using capitalizations to point out the variance ( e.g., epHEDrine and epINEPHrine).

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices has published a recommended list of high-risk drugs that look alike and sound alike for hospitals to post in the medication-dispensing areas. Other medications that don't have similar names — but are considered high-risk — have special labels or alerts for the health-care provider. These alerts can be in the form of colored labeling or bold lettering that is twice the size of normal print on labels.

Many hospitals are starting medication-reconciliation projects. This is designed to correct a complex process, but here is the essence. Patients are asked to take responsibility for providing key medication information. For any planned hospitalization, patients bring a comprehensive list of everything they are taking, including supplements and natural therapies. We then compare this regime with the medications provided during hospitalization. Finally, this complete list is communicated through the next phase of care, which might mean going home or on to another facility.

This project has been widely promoted nationwide through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's "100K Lives Campaign," which recently announced great success in its patient safety and quality efforts.

In Washington state, a law was passed this year that prohibits physicians from writing prescription orders using cursive handwriting. Instead, they need to print, type or computer-generate medication orders.

It's a stereotype that physicians have illegible handwriting, but the unfortunate reality for us pharmacists is that too many prescription orders are difficult to read. Even under the considerable pressures of time constraints and multiple demands, physicians will now need to use more care in writing prescriptions. Electronic prescribing (computerized physician order entry) is being promoted to help with this problem; however, full acceptance and implementation in this area will take a significant amount of time.

Technology is truly our friend in the pharmacy world. A few innovations and emerging systems are causing tremendous improvements. There are now automated medication-dispensing cabinets that nurses use to obtain medications. Much like a banking ATM machine, a nurse enters his or her code, along with the patient's code, and only the selected medication and dose can be obtained. Special dosing alerts are built into the system to help avoid potential dosing errors.

Other examples include the use of smart IV-pump technology, whereby abnormal dosing parameters and rates can alert the nurse.

Also, a small but growing percentage of hospitals nationwide are using bedside bar-coding technology to scan an I.D. bracelet worn by the patient, along with the corresponding bar-coded medication before it is administered. This is to help make sure the right drug, at the right dose, is given to the right patient (via the right route) — all at the right time.

These technological tools are excellent and are sure to reduce the occurrence of medication errors in hospitals. But good technology and improved systems are only part of the solution. Every family member, nurse, physician, pharmacist and caregiver needs to be attentive and handle with thoughtfulness the medications given to our patients.

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

For the first time since starting publication, "Obesity Meds and Research News" has something to smile about. This month the magazine is reporting the phase IIb results of a compound that actually works better than phen/fen. Phentermine and fenfluramine (phen/fen), when taken together, were the most successful weight loss medications ever, until fenfluramine was taken of the market in 1997. None of the new medications approved so far, and none in late stage clinical trials, has been as successful . . . until now.

Obesity Meds and Research News  So what's different now? The success of phen/fen has sparked a few innovative pharmaceutical companies to begin experimenting with existing medications and combining them into a single dose formulations for the treatment of obesity. Doing this provides several benefits over simply prescribing two medications off-label. First, primary care physicians are more likely to prescribe a single agent, already approved for long-term use. Second, with the safety and efficacy already established in one- and two-year trials, it is unlikely that the public will see the type of rare, but severe, adverse events as seen with phen/fen. Third, these compounds are being developed for once-a-day use, which makes compliance -- and successful weight loss -- more likely. Fourth, since the compound is approved for the long-term treatment of obesity, insurance company formularies are more likely to cover them.

On-line today the site has detailed results of a phase II trial on one of these combination therapies. And the good part is that it produces significantly more weight loss than phen/fen, remains useful for weight loss over multiple years, can maintain patients at goal weight in a reduced maintenance dose, and has almost no side-effects.

"Obesity Meds and Research News" is a subscriber-supported advertisement-free newsletter with the latest information on obesity medications, weight loss and diet studies written for professionals and patients. In addition to the monthly newsletter, OMR maintains an investigational drug database, and features two subscriber bonuses, Obesity 101, a primer on obesity basics, and OMR Obesity Update, a monthly literature overview. The OMR pages contain in-depth information on medications coming out within the next few years and others in earlier stages of development.

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Adults 18 years and older are able to buy hypodermic needles without a prescription for the first time in Massachusetts under a controversial state law that went into effect Monday.

Massachusetts becomes one of 48 states in the nation to decriminalize needle possession in an attempt to reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C. It took nearly two decades for the Legislature to pass the law, and supporters had to override a veto from Gov. Mitt Romney.

Donna Rheaume, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health, said pharmacies had received educational material over the weekend that described how to safely dispose of needles. It also contains information on where to seek help for drug addiction, AIDS, diabetes and other diseases.

The educational material was required under the law. A copy of the pamphlet was posted on the state's web site on Friday.

"The law went into effect today," Rheaume said. "The information, the pamphlets that DPH was required to provide to the pharmacies has been sent to the pharmacies."

The law is optional for pharmacies. They can still choose to require a prescription. Rheaume did not know how many were opting out, but CVS will sell needles without a prescription, as it does in other states with the same law, a spokesman said last week.

Rick Gregg, proprietor of the Medicine Store in Hyannis, said he hadn't sold any hypodermic needles over the counter yesterday.

"I'm not sure I will, either," he said. His clients have insurance and get reimbursed for prescription needles, so they would have no need to buy over the counter unless they forgot to pack needles on vacation.

But Gregg, one of the last independent pharmacists on Cape Cod, said he thinks the new law is a good idea if it encourages drug addicts to use new, clean needles.

Otherwise they're at increased risk of getting hepatitis C or HIV, and treating those diseases costs a lot more than a box of needles, Gregg said.

Opponents of the measure, including Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the Republican nominee for governor, warned it would lead to more drug addiction and larger numbers of discarded needles in beaches, parks and other public areas.

But people who argued for the law, including Sen. Robert O'Leary, D-Barnstable, who filed the legislation in the Senate, said it would prevent the spread of disease, without condoning drug use.

The state pamphlet warns people that they cannot dispose of needles in household trash or recycling bins. Needles must be thrown away at a drop off site or through a medical mail back service.

The law has a penalty of up to $25,000 or two years in jail for improper disposal of hypodermic needles.

The issue was used against Democrats in the 2004 elections, and Healey quickly made it a centerpiece of her platform in the race for governor.

"Imagine your children not only coming upon dirty needles in the park, but standing next to a drug addict in the checkout line at CVS who is there to buy more needles to feed his or her addition," Healey said earlier this summer.

The pamphlet lists needle disposal sites that already exist locally in Barnstable County, Franklin County and the City of Haverhill, leading some supporters of the law to accuse the DPH of not doing enough to promote safe disposal.

The law allows collection centers in such places as health facilities and municipal buildings, if they chose to offer them.

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

Filling a prescription from your doctor's clinic may soon get a lot easier, faster and possibly safer.
PatientCare Family Clinic was among the first in Missouri to send prescriptions electronically to participating pharmacies, but more area clinics will have the ability in the near future, said clinic medical director Dr. Tom Landholt.
Electronic prescribing eliminates time-consuming paperwork and phone calling between the doctor's office and pharmacist, it prevents mistakes that occur in deciphering handwriting or retyping drug data at the pharmacy. And it can streamline the time it takes for a patient to get a prescription filled or refilled, Landholt said.

"Over half my prescriptions are going out this way" to Wal- Mart, Walgreens, Sam's, Super-D and a few participating independents, Landholt said.

"The patients have been excited about this because everybody's time is important," he added.

On Monday, it made a difference for Alex Kintner, 16, who saw Landholt's physician assistant Dawn Zabinski for a sinus infection.

She called up Kintner's records on a computer in the exam room, chose an antibiotic from a menu on the screen, clicked on the name of his pharmacy and pressed the "sign" button.

Instead of it printing out a prescription slip, the order went directly to the pharmacy. Within a minute she got a receipt that the order had been sent through SureScripts, a secure national clearinghouse for electronic prescriptions.

"As soon as we left the doctor's office, we went to the Walgreens on East Sunshine and it was ready when we got there," Kintner said. "I've never gotten a prescription that fast before," he added. "It usually takes an hour."

Speed at the pharmacy is up to the pharmacist, Landholt said. But the electronic ordering cuts down on the back-and-forth of calls, re-calls, faxes and re-faxes that add up over a day's time.

"This was a two-click procedure to get the prescription filled out and sent to the pharmacy," Landholt said. "That's pretty cool."

His was one of three clinics in Missouri, Arizona and Portland that did final testing before going live this month using SureScripts. The software could be released for sale Oct. 1, he said.

SureScripts provides an "electronic interface," or path for the doctor's and pharmacist's computers to talk.

To participate, a clinic must buy SureScripts software or have an electronic medical records system that links to SureScripts. Both CoxHealth and St. John's systems have bought or are using software that has the ability to access this service in the future, he said.

The SureScripts Web site, www.surescripts.com, says more than 40 percent of the nation's pharmacies are members. As more pharmacies and physicians participate, they will help drive down the cost of prescribing transactions and boost efficiency and safety, the Web site said.

Like an online banking system, SureScripts must meet federal standards for privacy and security of medical records, Landholt said.

The system also has built-in safeguards, and communication goes both ways.

"The pharmacist is still going to look at a prescription," he said. And he or she will still call by telephone with concerns about potential drug interactions or allergies.

If a patient calls the pharmacy for a refill, the pharmacist sends a message to the doctor that lands in the patient's chart and flags the doctor.

Landholt or Zabinski can approve or deny the refill with one click, and can send an explanation via computer. If they order a drug incorrectly, the system will immediately alert him that the order failed.

Physician assistant Zabinski sees a big difference between this method and her former job in Marshfield.

"Nurses would be there 45 minutes to one hour after closing just (calling in) refills," she said, while larger clinics hire full-time "refill nurses." Nurses at PatientCare Family Clinic go home at 4:30 p.m., she said.

"It's exciting to feel like when I send it electronically, I'm not going to get a phone call back that (the prescription fax) didn't get there," she said.

Landholt added, "It's very simple, but it takes a great deal of headache away if you can do it electronically."

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

On any given Sunday afternoon you can walk into Leawood Family Care and find a buzz of activity — and it's not the cleaning crew.

Leawood Family Care, at 11301 Ash St. in Leawood, is among a limited — but maybe growing — number of doctors' offices that offer extended hours.

Lisa Pioli, one of the seven doctors who own the practice, said patients can come in without an appointment and be seen by a doctor within a relatively short amount of time. The walk-in portion of the practice is available until 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. The walk-in service is open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Formerly owned by Carondelet Health, Leawood Family Care started offering extended hours several years ago because of patient requests.

"It takes a tremendous amount of work, money and staff," said Pioli, who had worked in retail walk-in clinics before coming to the Leawood practice. "You have to have doctors willing to work regular hours and after hours."

The extended hours also are expensive, Pioli said.

"We bled financially," Pioli said about the first three years of extended hours. "We had to bring in a lot of front-desk staff using both full-timers and part-timers."

But Pioli said the walk-in word spread, and eventually business began to grow.

"By keeping it busy, it made it lucrative," she said.

Charges for services are dictated largely by insurance companies, but the practice does not differentiate between walk-in and appointment patients. However, there is one thing that's distinctive between the two types of patients.

"The patient who uses walk-in (service) has a different mind-set," Pioli said. "The kiss of death to a walk-in is the wait — they want to get in and out."

Offering extended hours is one of several recommendations for improving patient care put forth by the Leawood-based American Academy of Family Physicians, whose members include 20,000 family medicine practices and 95,000 individual physicians.

The academy's Future Family Medical Report also suggested more use of technology in managing practices, such as electronic files, portability and advanced scheduling options, as well as being sensitive to ethnic and diversity issues.

"They decided (the field) needed to refocus ... to a more patient-centered focus," said Terry McGenney, chief executive of TransforMed, a subsidiary of the academy that was created to encourage members to make such a transformation.

McGenney said the academy started a two-year national demonstration project this year working with 36 practices across the United States to implement the TransforMed model. Online tools are being created for these practices to assess their progress.

McGenney said anecdotal information from those using the new model indicate a win-win situation.

"Implementing the new model not only increases patient satisfaction but increases the financial performance of the practices," he said.

James W. Hall, a primary care physician, has been offering extended hours at his office, Landmark Medical Center in Kansas City, for more than two decades.

Hall, along with another doctor and practical nurse, see walk-in patients as well as scheduled appointments beginning at 7 a.m. Hall's office is also open from 7 a.m. until noon on Saturdays and offers same-day scheduling.

"Patients love those early-morning hours," Hall said. "Medicine is to serve. We're in the personal service business, so we need to be there" when there is demand.

Hall said overhead costs are high in family practice, especially staffing.

"Forty-four cents of every dollar that comes in goes to employee salaries," Hall said. "The rest (of expenses) are fairly well fixed — utilities, rent and malpractice insurance."

Medical service providers also can benefit from extended hours.

Diagnostic Imaging Centers offers extended hours beyond the traditional business day in order to meet patient demand. The centers offer such services as mammography, ultrasound, CT and MRIs, and general radiology testing. Diana Holek, chief operating officer, said all seven locations offer early-morning or evening hours for patients, as well as Saturdays. Staffing is key in meeting the demand, she said. About 54 percent of the centers' budget goes to salaries.

"We watch our schedule closely. If you're going to open two more hours, than you have to look at your reimbursements and the other things you need — front-office staff, technologists, doctors," Holek said. "You have to do your due diligence before adding staff … but if we have to add staff to meet demand, we will."________________________________

Convenience factor


Over the past two years, drugstore health-care clinics have popped up in the Kansas City area. They are now operating in some Walgreens and CVS stores.The clinics, which are staffed by nurse practitioners, offer walk-in service without need of an appointment, quick visits and the ability to get a prescription and fill it in one stop. Terry McGenney, who leads the American Academy of Family Physicians' new TransforMed program, was not surprised by the emergence of these clinics. "They were probably more a response to the old (family practice) system," said McGenney. There has been some criticism from the physician community that the care provided by a nurse practitioner — without direct supervision by a doctor — can't be compared to what a physician provides. And the American Medical Association has expressed concerns that the clinics "cherry-pick" locations in affluent areas. The in-store clinics contend that they provide health-care services that are needed and that they offer high-quality care as well as convenience.

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

According to a recent Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll, four out of five (80%) U.S. adults indicate that they favor allowing people to import prescription drugs from Canada and other countries if they are much less expensive. A vast majority (84%) of the public strongly or somewhat agrees that the law banning pharmaceutical imports is intended to protect drug companies' profits, while only thirty-six percent say this law helps protect Americans from potentially harmful drugs.

These are some of the results of an online survey of 2,295 U.S. adults conducted by Harris Interactive® between August 23 and 25, 2006 for The Wall Street Journal Online's Health Industry Edition ( www.wsj.com/health).


While some pharmaceutical companies want to make it impossible for Canadian pharmacies to sell drugs over the Internet, a majority of adults (72%) state that this policy is very or somewhat unreasonable. Additionally, 83 percent agree that it should be legal to import drugs from Canada that are approved and vetted by Health Canada, Canada's equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since last year, Customs has been confiscating packages mailed to U.S. consumers by Canadian pharmacies, with 37,154 packages seized as of July 2006. A majority (77%) agrees that confiscating drugs at the Canadian border jeopardizes the health of some Americans, and very few (6%) feel that those who regularly order pharmaceuticals from Canada should be fined or arrested.


Interestingly, only one out of ten (11%) adults say they have bought prescription drugs from a pharmacy in Canada or another foreign country (either by going there, on the Internet, or by mail) in order to save money, but that percentage has doubled since 2002. Adults living in the West (16%) are more likely to indicate that they have bought prescription drugs from a pharmacy in Canada or another foreign country, as compared those living in the South (11%), East (8%) or Midwest (8%). Hispanics (23%) are more likely to say they have purchased prescription drugs from a pharmacy in another country, as compared to Whites (11%) and Blacks (2%).

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

Buying medicine online can be easy. Just make sure you do it safely.

• Talk with your doctor and have a physical exam before you get any new medicine.

• The S.C. Board of Pharmacy — (803) 896-4700 — can tell you if a Web site is licensed and in good standing.

• Web sites that display the seal of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy have been checked to make sure they meet state and federal rules. www.vipps.info .

A SAFE WEB SITE SHOULD

• Be licensed by the state board of pharmacy where the Web site is operating

• Have a licensed pharmacist to answer your questions

• Require a prescription from your doctor or other health care professional who is licensed in the United States to write prescriptions for medicine

• Have a way for you to talk to a person if you have problems

MORE INFORMATION

www.fda.gov/buyonline

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