Brief Hiatus

The next update will be on Wednesday, April 4.

By the way, some new features will be appearing on the blog -- probably around Easter. They will include a RSS feed, new links, and a couple of pages of additional content.

If you have suggestions, questions, or comments about the blog, send them to info@canadapharmacynews.com.

Don't forget to support the ads on the sidebar!

Jason

Procedure treats asthma without drugs

This isn't really a pharmacy story, but I thought it was an interesting new treatment.

From the Globe and Mail:
Asthma can be treated, safely and effectively, with a procedure that uses electromagnetic energy to alter problematic muscles in the airways, according to promising new Canadian research.

The procedure, known as bronchial thermoplasty, does not cure asthma, nor will it eliminate the ubiquitous inhaler, but it reduces symptoms and lessens the need for drugs to treat the condition.

It is the first non-drug treatment for the common breathing disorder, good news for sufferers who have trouble controlling their symptoms with traditional anti-inflammatory drugs such as steroids. ...more

Pharmacists getting power to prescribe

Look for an all out media blitz about pharmacist prescribing in Alberta over the next week or two. Besides trumpeting the news in general, the Alberta College of Pharmacists want to clear up as many misconceptions about prescribing that are currently held by the public.

I'd say this publicity is needed. Last week I got a decent sampling of comments from the public when I did a shift in a community pharmacy. I think the public generally expects that pharmacists will have powers similar to physicians. However, this isn't the case. In fact, some aspects of a pharmacy purchase will become more difficult. A pharmacist is now required to log the sale of all Schedule 2 (behind the counter) OTC products. So anyone picking up some Gravol or acetaminophen with codeine will have to give all of their personal info (including Alberta Health Care number) to the pharmacist.

Overall, pharmacist prescribing should be a positive development, but it's still very much a work in development. For example, the criteria for determining if a pharmacist can initiate drug therapy are still not known. For now, adapting prescriptions and emergency supplies are the only types of pharmacist presribing we'll see.

From the Calgary Herald:
Albertans will soon be able to bypass the doctor's office and head directly to the drugstore to purchase some prescription medications from pharmacists in a first for Canada.

The Alberta government said Wednesday it's moving to allow pharmacists to prescribe some drugs under new regulations that will take effect as early as this fall.

The change will also allow the province's 3,500 pharmacists to extend and modify prescriptions from physicians as well as administer injectable drug treatments like vaccines. ...more

Changes to Canadian labelling of Tamiflu

From Health Canada:
Health Canada wishes to inform Canadians that the Canadian labelling for Tamiflu has recently been updated to include new safety information resulting from adverse reaction reports of abnormal or suicidal behaviour in Japanese children or teenagers taking Tamiflu. As of February 28, 2007, there have been no Canadian reports of deaths or psychiatric adverse events such as abnormal or suicidal behaviour in children or teenagers.

Health Canada has also received preliminary information on eight new cases in Japan of self-harm in patients taking Tamiflu, and is aware that Japan has now restricted use of Tamiflu in patients 10 to 19 years old. Further information is expected from the manufacturer, Hoffman-LaRoche Limited, and appropriate measures will be taken if necessary following analysis. ...more

Senator Fights For Canadian Drug Access

From Newschannel5.com (Tenn.):
Lawmakers battled over prescription drugs on Capitol Hill Tuesday. One state lawmaker was fighting to give seniors a major price break, but drug companies countered with strong opposition.

State lawmakers examined a new way for Tennesseans to legally buy drugs from other countries, mainly Canada. The savings are amazing.

Senator Doug Jackson wants Tennesseans to be able to legally buy discount drugs from other countries, via the I-SAVE RX program. ...more

Company offering cheap prescription drugs faces probe

From the Vancouver Sun:
The College of Pharmacists of B.C. says it has launched an investigation into a Richmond company offering cheap prescription drugs online without being registered with the college.

The investigation will probe regulatory matters. There is no evidence that the Richmond company is in any way linked to the death of a Quadra Island woman who died after ingesting drugs she ordered online.

Under the college's guidelines, a B.C. pharmacy that sells drugs online must publish its name and address on its website -- along with the college's phone number, which people can call to verify the site is legitimate. ...more

MD: Online medical treatment 'frightening'

There are a few more details about the Marcia Bergeron in this article. Most notably, the names of the drugs she bought online were mentioned: alprazolam (brand name Xanax) and zolpidem (brand name Ambien in the U.S)

From the Vancouver Sun:
The Quadra Island woman who died after taking tainted pills she bought on the Internet became very sick in the weeks leading up to her death but never mentioned ordering drugs online, her best friend said yesterday.

"She complained that she felt like she had flu symptoms and diarrhea," said Glenda Billerbeck, who visited Marcia Bergeron at her home in the days before her death. "She said, 'My legs are kind of swollen up,' and she was tired."

Billerbeck said Bergeron, 57, suffered from several health problems, including a bad hip and severe allergies.

But she said her friend, whom she knew for more than 15 years, never mentioned ordering medicine online. ...more

'I want this drug in Alberta'

I feel for this mother, but I think she's asking the wrong question here. Alberta does not have the authority to approve drugs when it comes to safety and efficacy. This is a federal responsibility. To my knowledge, a provincial government won't cover a drug if it hasn't been approved yet. She should be asking for improved access to drugs that are as yet unapproved.

The article makes it sound like the mom has access to the drug but not the funds. As a result they are trying to raise money and get the government on board. My question is, when they raise the money, where are they going to access the drug? It's unapproved in Canada, which means that it can't be sold here, even if you have a prescription for it from your doctor.

Does she intend to buy it off the internet? Is she going to a foreign country where it has been approved? I'd like to know the answer to that.

It's pretty much impossible to get the government to pay for a treatment that isn't approved as being safe in this country yet. And shouldn't it be that way? The line has to be drawn somewhere, and this seems like a reasonable place to do it.

From the Edmonton Sun:
An Edmonton mom fighting for the $1-million-a-year drug therapy that could help prolong the lives of her three terminally ill sons says she’s blown away by a recent outpouring of community support.

That support includes a three-day charity Strip-a-thon – organized by exotic dancers from Showgirls – slated for three cities in mid-May.

But Nicole Miranda is less than impressed with the Alberta government.

“Regular Albertans have stepped up to help and the government, who has the money, is just sitting back,” she said Sunday. ...more

Muslim cashiers won't ring up pork products

I ran into this posting at the Liberty Papers and thought it was worth a link. It's an interesting question: how is this the same or different from a pharmacist's moral objection to fill a prescription?

From Newsday (NY):
Beryl Dsouza was late and in no mood for delays when she stopped at a Target store after work two weeks ago for milk, bread and bacon.

So Dsouza was taken aback when the cashier - who had on the traditional headscarf worn by many Muslim women - refused to swipe the bacon through the checkout scanner.

"She made me scan the bacon. Then she opened the bag and made me put it in the bag," said Dsouza, 53. "It made me wonder why this person took a job as a cashier." ...more

Online drugs can prove deadly: coroner

This death is a sad example of "buyer beware." I'd like to think that it might dissuade a few people to buy pharmaceuticals online from questionable websites, but the fact is a lot of people want to circumvent the typical route of going to the physician and getting a prescription, especially when it comes to certain types of drugs. Hopefully, people will now be able to identify some of the characteristics of the worst sites.

It sounds like she was ordering painkillers and sedatives, including one that is not available in Canada due to a high risk of overdose. In a lot of ways, this case has similarities to buying Oxcontin on the shady street corner in your own town. You never really know what you're getting. The only difference is that she bought it online.

From Vancouver Sun:
A few days before she died just after Christmas, Marcia Bergeron started losing her hair and had blurred vision -- telling friends on Quadra Island that she feared she was coming down with the flu.

It was only later that those investigating her death discovered the truth: She had slowly been poisoned.

But this is no murder mystery.

The B.C. Coroners Service announced Tuesday that it believes Bergeron, 57, was poisoned by tainted pills she ordered online from a bogus Canadian pharmacy. ...more

Online drug loss hard pill to swallow

The numbers are now verifying what we already knew. Canadian online pharmacies had a tough year in 2006. I think anyone who has survived this long has likely found their niche and will continue in business. However, there is no real sign of growth in the industry. With the manufacturer restrictions solidly in place and Medicare Part D entering its second year, the only factor that could change is the exchange rate. A sinking Canadian dollar may be the only way these pharmacies will see leaps in sales.

From the Financial Post:
Dozens of Canadian Internet pharmacies have closed shop or laid off staff after sales at the country’s online drugstores plunged by nearly 50% last year.

A report released Wednesday by IMS Health, a company that tracks pharmaceutical sales, suggests Internet pharmacies sold only $211-million worth of prescriptions into the U.S. in 2006, a steep drop from sales of $420-million in 2005.

The declining revenues forced about 30 online drugstores — whose chief business was selling cheap Canadian medication to U.S. seniors — to close around the country, according to the Canadian International Pharmacy Association. ...more

Buying online drugs: Dos and Don'ts

From CTV News:
Health agencies and experts are providing advice to Canadians who are considering buying drugs over the Internet, with the issue launched back into the spotlight after the recent death of a B.C. woman who took a drug she purchased online.

The B.C. coroner says the 57-year-old Vancouver Island woman bought a sedative not legally sold in Canada, and which has been linked to overdose deaths in other countries. ...more

Former Harper adviser lobbying for drug firm

I'm glad the HPV vaccination program cash was included in this week's budget. However, it's really bad optics when a senior PM advisor just started to work for the only company that can benefit from the program.

From the Ottawa Citizen:
A lobbyist with past ties to Prime Minister Stephen Harper was retained last month by the drug company that stands to benefit from a newly announced $300 million in federal funding for a vaccination program to prevent cervical cancer.

Ken Boessenkool, who served as Mr. Harper's senior policy adviser until 2004, registered to lobby the federal government on immunization policy on behalf of Merck Frosst Canada. ...more

Cancer society warns of untested drug

From CBC News:
The Canadian Cancer Society is warning people not to self-medicate with the cheap, widely available drug known as DCA.

Dichloroacetate is a drug used to treat lactic acid buildup in children as well as people with diabetes and AIDS — conditions that differ from cancer.

The drug has shown promise as a cancer treatment in studies on rats but it has never been tested on human cancer patients.

Heather Logan, the director of cancer control policy at the society who trained as a nurse, has worked with people fighting to prolong their lives. Logan said she sympathizes with those who are buying the drug and mixing it at home as a last resort, but stresses there are serious safety concerns. ...more

Pills bought online likely killed B.C. woman

From the Globe and Mail:
Pills bought on the Internet appear to have killed a 57-year-old woman on Vancouver Island, regional coroner Rose Stanton said Tuesday.

She said the woman, who lived in the Campbell River area, bought a sedative not legally sold in Canada and which has been linked to overdose deaths in other countries. ...more

U.S. bureau looking into unapproved cancer drug

From the National Post:
The fraud division of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is looking into concerns that an American entrepreneur and chemist are selling an unapproved compound to people fighting cancer.

The FDA wouldn't say if there is an actual investigation into the buydca.com Web site, but in general, if the agency learns about something unsafe or illegal, it moves swiftly to take action and protect the public. ...more

Extra $1.4 billion earmarked for health care

Today's federal budget featured many spending initiatives, and pharmacy-related items were included. Most notable was a promise to provide $300 million to provinces to immunize women against the HPV virus. There was also a mention of $400 million to help support provincial development of electronic health records. A national pharmacare strategy was not proposed.

Both of these measures are welcomed. I am especially heartened to see the HPV vaccination cash. This should help speed up the process of having the provinces add Gardasil (and future HPV vaccines) to their immunization programs. The details are unclear at this point, but if you use $500 as a rough estimate of the cost of the three necessary Gardasil injections per patient, the $300 million should immunize 60,000 women.

From the Vancouver Sun:
The federal government announced an extra $1.4 billion for health care Monday to make progress on a patient wait times guarantee, establish a national mental health commission and launch a vaccination program to prevent cancer of the cervix.

The largest portion of the extra health money in the minority Conservative government's budget is in a three-year, $612-million fund for provincial and territorial governments that make "public commitments to implement a wait times guarantee" by the end of this month. ...more

Patients 'desperate' for drugs

From the Edmonton Sun:
Desperate cancer patients are using the Internet to buy an experimental anti-cancer medicine intended for animals and self-medicating - despite stern warnings from medical professionals.

"It's a fool's game, but terminal cancer patients can be desperate, grasping at whatever straws are there," said Dr. Louis Francescutti, a local emergency room physician and injury prevention expert. ...more

Health Canada Endorsed Important Safety Information on Exjade* (deferasirox)

From Health Canada:
For health care professionals
For the public

Pharmacy ordered to stop selling compound

This is a fascinating ethical and practice debate question. How inappropriate is it to fill this prescription? How much latitude should be given when a dying patient makes a very unusual request? While the registrar of the Alberta College of Pharmacists said they would be looking into this case, I have a hard time believing this pharmacist will be seriously punished for his actions. He was trying to do the right thing for his patients, and he has now stopped filling these prescriptions.

From the Edmonton Journal:
An Edmonton pharmacist who previously filled doctor-written prescriptions for dichloroacetate (DCA) said he disagrees with the medical researcher who warned him this week to stop selling the compound to cancer patients.

Ron Marcinkoski, a pharmacist at Market Drugs Medical at 97th Street and 102nd Avenue, said he was doing what he could to help cancer patients when University of Alberta professor Dr. Evangelos Michelakis phoned the pharmacy to say DCA, which shrank tumours in rats but hasn't been tested in humans, could be lethal or cause horrible side-effects. ...more