Showing posts with label prescriptions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prescriptions. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Prescription Medications Take on Leading Role in Illegal Drug Trade - Nursing Link

Brian Freskos | Star-News, Wilmington, N.C.

February 22, 2011

Feb. 17—When Lt. J.A. LeBlanc arrived at the New Hanover County Vice and Narcotics Unit in 2001, one detective could handle the volume of prescription drug cases. Now, he said, all 16 detectives investigate them.

Street drugs such as cocaine and heroin have long been the targets of authorities seeking to root out illicit substances. But in recent years, growing prescription drug abuse has shifted law enforcement’s focus to stemming the flow of dangerous medications onto the black market.

Abuse of prescription medications, particularly narcotic pain relievers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, is rising precipitously, leading White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske last June to call it the “nation’s fastest-growing drug problem.” Between 1998 and 2008, treatment admissions for prescription pill addicts posted a 400 percent increase, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Southeastern North Carolina has not escaped what many law enforcement officials call an epidemic. Between 2004 and 2010, the New Hanover County Vice and Narcotics Unit seized nearly 15,100 pills — 3,749 of them in 2010 alone, the largest county pill haul in four years.

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Monday, January 3, 2011

New Drug Approvals Slipped in 2010 - WSJ.com

The Food and Drug Administration approved about 21 drugs in 2010, a relatively modest figure that shows the pharmaceutical industry hasn't yet escaped its drought in recent years.

A few potential blockbusters won approval during the year, but some of the most highly anticipated new products got delayed into next year or beyond. That partly reflects a tougher environment at the FDA, with regulators stepping up their scrutiny of safety issues in drugs for obesity, diabetes and other conditions.

According to monthly drug-approval reports on the FDA's website, 21 new drugs were approved in 2010, down from 25 in 2009 and 24 in 2008, but higher from a recent low of 18 in 2007.

The final approval figures, as well as the number of applications received by the agency in 2010, won't be available until next month. The approval figures don't include dozens of approvals granted for new formulations or new uses of existing drugs.

Although the 2010 figures are a bit lower than previous years, FDA spokeswoman Sandy Walsh said there's "no systemic change in how the FDA is approaching drug approvals."

The figures include several major biologic drugs, which are created from living cells and represent a growing portion of the pharmaceutical market. Amgen Inc. won approval for Prolia, a drug that is injected twice yearly to treat osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Roche Holding AG's biotechnology unit, Genentech, won approval for Actemra, a drug that's administered intravenously to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

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Monday, November 15, 2010

Uninsured Americans cannot afford many medications-KevinMD.com

I went to the doctor recently and got a new prescription.

The doctor was kind enough to give me some free samples, and a voucher that I could redeem to fill the prescription once at no cost. In the future, it will cost me $50 if I decide to refill it. If I didn’t have pharmaceutical benefits through my insurance coverage, the medication would set me back about $500 for a month’s supply. For those of you doing the math, yes, that’s $6,000 a year. Suffice it to say that I wouldn’t be filling the prescription. And that’s exactly what many Americans do.

For many low-income uninsured Americans, a number of important medications are out of reach because they are simply unaffordable. These are medications that treat chronic diseases like hypertension, high cholesterol, and other common illnesses. They are effective medications that can make a huge difference in a person’s quality of life–including whether or not they die an avoidable death. In a show of good faith, most pharmaceutical manufacturers provide access to no-cost or reduced-cost brand name medications (the ones they manufacture, of course) to this “gap” population. The trouble is, few people know about these programs, which offer tremendous assistance, but require people to jump through a number of application hoops to qualify for the cheap or, in some cases, free meds.

Dr. Heather Whitley has an article out in the latest issue of The Journal of Rural Health, which attempts to quantify the value of these prescription assistance programs (PAPs) at a clinic in Alabama. Head south from Tuscaloosa, and you’ll find yourself in Hale County–one of the 50 poorest counties in America with an average annual income of $14,927 per person. In Hale County, is a town called Moundville, and it is here that the Moundville Medical Clinic operates with a single physician, a nurse practitioner and a couple of nurses. This is one of those places that most Americans don’t know–or at least really don’t like to acknowledge–exists in the United States. If ever anyone needed help obtaining prescription medication, the patients of the Moundville Medical Clinic would be first in line.

The clinic has a pharmacist who works two days a week to help patients navigate the PAP application process. Costs are offset by charging patients $5 per completed and mailed application. In most cases, that is a small price to pay. Dr. Whitley looked at the data collected by the clinic to assess the value of the program–that is, how much free or reduced-cost medicine were patients getting?–and found that across a two-year period (2007 and 2008), the PAP program at the Moundville Medical Clinic brought in more than $138,000 in free medications.

That’s a lot, yes, but what is even more striking is when you consider that that was only for a total of 31 patients. In other words, each patient received about $4,500 in free medication on average during the study period. That’s a pretty remarkable benefit in return for filling out some complicated paperwork, and it suggests that — until real health reform and cost-control is achieved — clinics that see a number of PAP-eligible patients should strongly consider investing in such programs, even if it means having someone volunteer their time one day a week. The benefits far outweigh the costs, but there are administrative hurdles that must be cleared before the benefits can be accessed.

Brad Wright is a health policy doctoral student who blogs at Wright on Health.

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Andrew Lopez, RN
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856-415-9617, (fax) 415-9618

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

RxDrugSAFE

RxDrugSAFE:"RxDrugSAFE is the newest weapon in the fight to prevent prescription drug abuse from toddlers to teens. RxDrugSAFE is a real steel safe that uses advanced, simple to use, fingerprint recognition to open. Only parents, guardians or other authorized users can program and open RxDrugSAFE. RxDrugSAFE is the most secure prescription medication safe for home use on the market. RxDrugSAFE is designed to be securely mounted in drawers, closets or cabinets, but can also be used when traveling as well."
info@rxdrugsafe.com
http://www.rxdrugsafe.com/

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

WikiAnswers - Is diphenhydramine safe to take after expiration date

Wondering about that expiration date on your medicine bottle?

WikiAnswers - Is diphenhydramine safe to take after expiration date:"It turns out that the expiration date on a drug does stand for something, but probably not what you think it does. Since a law was passed in 1979, drug manufacturers are required to stamp an expiration date on their products. This is the date at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug."
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_diphenhydramine_safe_to_take_after_expiration_date#

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Saturday, July 3, 2010

Internal Medicine, Medical Specialties, Legal Nursing Consultants, Medical/Legal Consulting

Internal Medicine, Medical Specialties, Legal Nursing Consultants, Medical/Legal Consulting:"Doctors of internal medicine focus on adult medicine and have had special study and training focusing on the prevention and treatment of adult diseases. At least three of their seven or more years of medical school and postgraduate training are dedicated to learning how to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases that affect adults. Internists are sometimes referred to as the "doctor's doctor," because they are often called upon to act as consultants to other physicians to help solve puzzling diagnostic problems."
http://www.legalnursingconsultant.org/internal

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