American Medicine Chest Challenge (AMCC)

AMERICAN MEDICINE CHEST CHALLENGE TO RAISE AWARENESS OF PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE

National Day of Awareness to be Held on November 13, 2010 in Communities throughout Pennsylvania
PENNSYLVANIA – On November 13, 2010, a historic and lifesaving event --- The American Medicine Chest Challenge (AMCC) --- a public health initiative to raise awareness about the dangers of prescription drug abuse will be held in communities throughout Virginia with local law enforcement partnership.

AMCC was created to help American families see their medicine cabinets through new eyes -- as an access point for potential misuse and abuse of over-the-counter and prescription medicine by young people and to provide an opportunity to properly dispose of unused, unwanted, and expired medicines and encourage families to take the five step American Medicine Chest Challenge, explained Angelo M. Valente, Chief Executive Officer of AMCC.

Information on where to dispose of these medicines can be found on americanmedicinechest.com.

What's your prescription medicine I.Q.? SafeGuardMyMeds

How much do you know about storing and safeguarding prescription medicine? You can take a short quiz to find out.

Safeguard My Meds is a national educational program from the National Community Pharmacists Association and Purdue Pharma L.P. to increase awareness about the importance of safe storage and disposal of prescription medicine in an effort to reduce the risk of misuse and abuse.

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA®) represents America’s community pharmacists, including the owners of more than 22,700 independent community pharmacies, pharmacy franchises, and chains.

Learn more here: http://www.safeguardmymeds.org/

Where's the evidence behind off-label use of drugs?

Depending on your medical specialty, you may write many prescriptions for the off-label use of certain medications. There's nothing illegal about off-label use, but often I wonder: "how strong is the evidence?" The answer really depends on each drug and how it's used.

Many physicians prescribe drugs for off-label use. This happens quite often in the field of oncology because so many clinical studies are exploring various combinations of chemotherapy and targeted biologic agents.

Some patients follow medical news and ask doctors about off-label use when they see something on the news. For instance, some patients have been using certain diabetes drugs like Byetta for weight loss. Did the doctor suggest it, or did the patient do research and ask for it? Byetta isn't indicated for weight loss and it shouldn't be taken lightly because it can lead to some serious problems like pancreatitis.

Do patients really understand the evidence behind off-label use? Insurance companies generally won't pay for drugs that are used off-label, so patients are frequently paying out of their own pockets. Some of these new medications are very expensive, so I often wonder how some people do it.

AstraZeneca Expands AZ&Me Prescription Savings Program

During these difficult economic times, any type of savings program is appreciated. AstraZeneca is expanding its prescription savings program by extending assistance to qualifying patients who have recently lost their jobs, had their incomes reduced, or experienced a change in marital status or family size.

"AstraZeneca is committed to helping patients get the medicines they need," said Rich Fante, US President, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP. "Our responsibility goes beyond developing medicines to also making them available to those who cannot afford them."

Here are the details of the AZ&Me(TM) Prescription Savings programs:

• AZ&Me(TM) Prescription Savings program for people without insurance: AstraZeneca provides AstraZeneca medicines at no cost to qualifying individuals without prescription drug coverage who make up to $30,000 per year and families of four who make up to $60,000 per year.
• AZ&Me(TM) Prescription Savings program for people with Medicare Part D: AstraZeneca provides low-cost AstraZeneca medicines for qualifying Medicare Part D patients who make up to $30,000 per year or couples who make up to $40,000 per year.
• AZ&Me(TM) Prescription Savings program for healthcare facilities: AstraZeneca provides AstraZeneca medicines at no cost to qualifying non-profit healthcare facilities, such as disproportionate share hospitals, community health centers and community free clinics. This program connects patients to the AstraZeneca medicines they need at the same time and place they receive their treatment.

Patients can learn more about the AZ&Me(TM) Prescription Savings program at www.azandme.com or by calling 1-800-AZandMe.

Medicare Part D increases spending on prescription drugs

Is that what you were expecting? In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), we see that the authors conclude that "Enrollment in Medicare Part D was associated with increased spending on prescription drugs. Groups that had no or minimal drug coverage before the implementation of Part D had reductions in other medical spending that approximately offset the increased spending on drugs, but medical spending increased in the group that had more generous previous coverage."

Between December 2005 and December 2007, as compared with the increase in the no-cap group, the increase in total monthly drug spending was $41 higher among enrollees with no previous drug coverage, $27 higher among those with a previous $150 quarterly cap, and $13 higher among those with a previous $350 cap. I wonder if the government knew this was going to happen.

The article is titled, "The Effect of Medicare Part D on Drug and Medical Spending." Click here to access the abstract. The authors on this study included: Yuting Zhang, Ph.D., Julie M. Donohue, Ph.D., Judith R. Lave, Ph.D., Gerald O'Donnell, M.S., and Joseph P. Newhouse, Ph.D.

Drug Marketing and Prescribing Behavior

According to MM&M, only about 10% of prescriptions are impacted by traditional marketing techniques such as detailing and sampling. This is based on the IMS study called the "Brand Excellence Study." Here's a very interesting snippet from the story: "Around 4% of physicians wrote 44% of all new-to-brand prescriptions tracked. Another 90% of physicians to whom roughly 60% of field force contacts and samples are allocated, generated less than 40% of new-to-brand scripts."

So what does this tell us about marketing practices? Will we see these small numbers plummet now that physicians no longer have branded pens, notepads, or other types of branded giveaways?

Express Scripts to Buy WellPoint's NextRx

We live in a day of M&As (mergers and acquisitions) in the healthcare industry. Pfizer is buying Wyeth, but that's old news. Why should pharma have all the fun?

Express Scripts is buying WellPoint's NextRx for $4.7 billion. Actually, maybe that's $4.68. In either case, it's a huge amount of money. So who's next? According to Express Scripts, NextRx manages prescription benefits for about 25 million customers and handles more than 265 million prescriptions a year.