Generic drug prices skyrocketing in Canada: study

From Reuters:
Canadian government policies have driven up prices of generic prescription drugs so dramatically that they are more expensive than their U.S. counterparts, a study showed on Tuesday.

Prices of generic prescription drugs in Canada were, on average, 115 percent higher than U.S. prices, a study by Canada's Fraser Institute showed. However, Canadian brand-name prescription drugs were about 51 percent cheaper than those in the U.S.

"Canadians pay more for generic drugs because government policies shield generic drug companies and pharmacy retailers from normal market forces that would naturally reduce prices," the study said. ...more

Unauthorized Smoking Cessation Product Resolve May Pose Health Risk

From Health Canada:
Health Canada is advising Canadians not to use the unauthorized smoking cessation product Resolve, because of the potential health risk to consumers.

The product contains an unacceptable amount of an ingredient labelled as "CESTEMENOL-350." Consuming excessive amounts of this ingredient might result in damage to the kidney, liver or red blood cells.

Resolve is advertised as a natural stop smoking aid and is available in Cool Peppermint and Wild Cherry flavours. Resolve is distributed by The Winning Combination Inc. These products have been sold in retail stores across the country and are also available over the Internet.

Resolve is not authorized for sale in Canada and Health Canada has asked the company to recall the products. To date, the company has not complied with Health Canada's request. Health Canada will take further action to remove the product from the market. ...more

Class-action suits launched against makers of diabetes drug

From the Toronto Star:
A lawyer is attempting to launch class action lawsuits in two provinces against the makers of Avandia, a popular Type 2 diabetes drug.

Tony Merchant of the Merchant Law Group filed statements of claim in Saskatchewan and Ontario on Monday, alleging GlaxoSmithKline should have done more to warn consumers of the drug's risks.

Merchant says statements of claim will be filed in other provinces later this week.

"(The plaintiffs) have suffered heart attacks or suffered loss of their vision, and in some cases they have died," Merchant alleged in an interview late Monday. ...more

Diabetes drug should remain on market: advisers

From CTV News:
The widely used diabetes drug Avandia should remain on the market, U.S. government health advisers recommended Monday. They say evidence of an increased risk of heart attack from taking GlaxoSmithKline's Canadian-manufactured drug doesn't merit removal.

The nonbinding recommendation to the Food and Drug Administration came on a majority vote by the panel.

"We're being asked today to take a very draconian action based on studies that have very significant weaknesses and are inadequate for us to make that kind of decision," said Rebecca Killion, a Bowie, Md., diabetic and the panel's patient representative. ...more

Drug for mild to moderate Alzheimer's also helps severe disease: study

From Canada East:
A drug used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's can also ease some symptoms in people with a more advanced stage of the condition, helping patients and their caregivers to better cope with the effects of the debilitating neurological disease, a Canadian-led international study has found.

While the drug donepezil does not arrest the progression of Alzheimer's disease, the study found it improved the memory and overall functioning of those taking the medication compared with patients given a placebo.

"So it slows down what we call the symptomatic progression of the disease," said principal investigator Dr. Sandra Black, a neurologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. ...more

Two Diabetes Drugs Double Heart Failure Risk: Study

From the Washington Post:

Patients taking either of the diabetes drugs Avandia or Actos face twice the risk of developing heart failure compared to people not on the popular medications, a new study finds.

This means for every 50 patients with type 2 diabetes taking these drugs, one patient will develop heart failure within 26 months, according to the report released Friday and published in the August issue of Diabetes Care.

"Both Avandia and Actos double the risk of heart failure," concluded the lead author of the first study, Dr. Sonal Singh, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. "We know these drugs increase the risk, but we found the risk is more substantial than suspected. This occurs at even the lowest dose and among young patients." ...more

Methadone mixup upsets Sask. pharmacists

From CBC News:
Confusion about how Saskatchewan pharmacists get paid for a federal methadone program was largely Health Canada's fault, an official with the department says.

Some Saskatchewan pharmacists were upset after getting a June newsletter from Health Canada's Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program that said, effectively, some of them could expect less money from now on.

Specifically, it told them that for each of their methadone clients, who typically receive a dose every day, they could bill for only one prescription a week, with the pharmacist's fee capped at $36.17. Methadone is a drug used to wean addicts off heroin. ...more

Unauthorized drug being sold on Canadian shelves, despite warnings

From the Montreal Gazette:
Health Canada is trying to halt the sale and use of Resolve, a product used to help quit smoking, because of a potential health risk to consumers.

Despite not being authorized for sale in Canada, the products is sold in retail stores across the country, and is also available over the Internet.

Health Canada has asked the company to recall the products, but the company has not taken Resolve off the market, said a press release on Saturday. ...more

Painkillers invade Victoria streets

From the Victoria (BC) Times Colonist:
An increasing number of Victoria drug dealers are selling prescription painkillers -- sometimes referred to as hillbilly heroin -- on the streets, pushing the city toward a troublesome trend already plaguing major Canadian cities.

"I would term it as the evolution of the drug use in Victoria," said Const. Conor King, a drug expert. "What we're seeing is people who are heroin and cocaine dealers are becoming prescription drug dealers as well."

Those dealers sell Dilaudid, OxyContin and morphine sulphate -- opium-based painkillers from the same drug class as heroin. OxyContin's street name is "hillbilly heroin" because its abuse started mainly in rural areas where heroin was unavailable. Now it has supplanted heroin as the dominant drug in urban centres. ...more

Health Canada to crack down on fake pills

From the National Post:
A B.C. woman is fatally poisoned by counterfeit anxiety pills she ordered over the Internet, four Ontario patients die after apparently consuming fake -- and ineffective -- heart drugs, while Quebec vendors are spotted selling knock-off Viagra at a flea market.

The peddling of bogus pharmaceuticals is becoming such a worrisome problem that Health Canada has begun drafting a new anti-counterfeit strategy, expected to include beefed-up enforcement, stronger ties with police and a public-education campaign, a department official confirmed last week. The federal agency is also planning to hold a conference of interested parties to discuss the threat when the plan is released this fall.

For Health Canada officials used to dealing with a "generally compliant industry," counterfeiting represents a novel kind of health issue, said Paul Duchesne, a department spokesman. ...more

B.C. wants review of hepatitis drug coverage

From the Vancouver Sun:
Health Minister George Abbott said Monday the B.C. government has asked for a review of whether Pharmacare should pay for the hepatitis B drug Hepsera.

Tung Chan, chief executive of Chinese immigrant services organization S.U.C.C.E.S.S., strongly urged the government Monday to start paying for the drug.

He said hepatitis B especially affects people of Asian descent and Hepsera is recommended for patients whose liver conditions become unresponsive to other, approved drugs.

Hepsera is not covered by Pharmacare, but is now provided free of charge by drug maker Gilead Sciences as part of a compassionate care program. ...more

Coverage changes

From the Regina Leader Post:
An advocacy association that represents Saskatchewan pharmacists believes that federal changes to methadone coverage short-changes its members.

Brett Filson, executive director of the Pharmacists' Association of Saskatchewan (PAS), said Canadian pharmacists weren't warned that the definition of a prescription changed until they got a newsletter in mid-June from the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (NIHB).

Filson said he contacted NIHB last summer to ask questions about methadone coverage after a Saskatchewan pharmacy was audited and at that time, he was told that three different strengths of methadone constituted three different prescriptions and could be billed accordingly.

"When a patient is starting on it they'll have a strength for a few days and then the strength will be adjusted for a few days and then another strength adjustment will be made and the doctor will write that on the prescription," Filson explained. "Usually it's a run of about three days at each different strength as the patient is being brought on to the methadone." ...more

Natural remedies ‘potentially harmful’

From the National Post:
Half the pharmacists surveyed by Alberta researchers said they had seen evidence of dangerous interactions between natural health products and prescription drugs, a "startling" result that suggests natural remedies cause many more harmful side effects than once thought, a new study concludes.

Most of those pharmacists, however, failed to report the side effects to Health Canada's adverse-reaction database, the study indicated. The findings point to an "urgent need" for additional safety data on herbal and other natural products used by millions of Canadians, said the University of Alberta scientists behind the research.

"This [study] leads us to believe that natural-health product [NHP] adverse events are far more common than previously suspected," said their paper, just published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy. "The majority of Canadians use NHPs and our data confirm that this use may carry unrecognized risk." ...more

Not enough doctors advise smokers to butt out: report

From CBC News:
Doctors and other health-care professionals seem to be missing chances to help patients quit smoking, according to a report based on a large Canadian survey.

The 2005 government survey concluded half of smokers who visited health-care providers in the preceding 12 months got advice about quitting, suggesting that doctors, dentists and pharmacists need to take greater advantage of opportunities to provide such advice.

The report was published this week in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a public health journal by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Its findings are based on a Health Canada survey of the smoking habits of more than 20,000 people aged 15 and older that suggested 19 per cent of Canadians smoked in 2005. ...more

Campaign hopes to erase bad handwriting

From the Globe and Mail:
Along with the stethoscope and the white coat, bad handwriting is central to the popular image of the physician.

But the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has launched a campaign to stamp out hastily scrawled prescriptions after an audit revealed a third of the orders issued in its hospitals could have compromised patient safety, either because they were illegible or contained banned abbreviations.

“We know from the literature that there are certainly medical errors that result from miscommunication,” said pharmacist Lora Jaye Gray medication safety co-ordinator for the WRHA. “There are continually reports throughout Canada of patients who have been harmed and killed through medication errors. We also know from the Canadian Adverse Events Study in 2004 that 7.5 per cent of patients admitted to Canadian hospitals had at least one adverse event. Not all were medications, but medications were a big part of that.” ...more

Shoppers Drug Mart Profit Climbs 19% on Expansion

From Bloomberg:
Shoppers Drug Mart Corp., Canada's biggest pharmacy chain by sales, said second-quarter profit rose 19 percent on new stores that sell higher-priced beauty brands.

Net income increased to C$112.3 million ($107.7 million), or 52 cents a share, from C$94.4 million, or 44 cents, a year earlier, Toronto-based Shoppers said today in a statement. Sales in the period through June 16 climbed 9 percent to C$1.93 billion. Earnings beat analysts' estimates by 2 cents.

Shoppers opened 21 locations in the quarter, increasing retail space by 11.4 percent from a year earlier. The company has expanded space and added brand-name cosmetics at its in-store beauty boutiques to attract shoppers from department stores. ...more

Warning against over-the-counter sleep aids

From CTV News:
Health Canada is advising consumers not to use a sleep aid product called Optimum Health Care Sleep Easy because it contains an undeclared drug that can be habit-forming.

The department says the drug, clonazepam, is known to be habit-forming after even a few months of use.

Health Canada says people who have been using the product should consult with a health-care professional before they stop taking the pills, because of the risk of serious withdrawal symptoms. ...more

Pharmacists welcome more time with patients

From CANOE:
Pharmacists would love to meet with their patients every year to discuss drug interactions and negative side effects, but some fear they lack the time and money to follow through with the Ontario government's new service, their association warned Tuesday.

Legislation passed by the Liberal government last summer set aside $50 million to allow patients who take three or more medications can book a 30-minute annual consultation with their pharmacist to ensure they're taking the drugs properly.

But the new law also puts a squeeze on pharmacists because it reduces the amount of cash they can get from dispensing generic drugs, said Ken Burns, chairman of the Ontario Pharmacists' Association.

"It's a question of whether pharmacists will have the time and the resources to actually be able to do this," Burns said as Health Minister George Smitherman launched the province's new MedsCheck program at a news conference. ...more

Alberta covers costly cancer drug

From the Calgary Herald:
Alberta is now footing the bill for a common colon cancer treatment, leading advocates to call for provincial funding of a second drug with a steep price tag.

The provincial government has begun picking up the tab for Oxaliplatin after years of controversy because many patients paid thousands to undergo the therapy, an effective colon cancer treatment.

Alberta is expected to spend about $7 million a year to treat about 300 patients with the drug.

It's certainly a positive step for patients," said Dr. Tony Fields, a vice-president with the Alberta Cancer Board. ...more

Older, cheaper diabetes drugs as good as newer

From CTV News:
Older and cheaper pills are just as effective for treating diabetes as some of the more expensive new drugs, researchers report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The findings are good news for diabetics who have trouble affording their medication and could further hurt sales of newer and heavily-marketed drugs, such as Avandia.

Researchers, led by Dr. Shari Bolen of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, read through 216 published studies and two systematic reviews. Their comparison of 10 diabetes drugs showed they all worked well to reduce levels of glucose in the blood, though each has its drawbacks, the researchers found.

One of the best medications was metformin, sold under the brand name Glucophage and Glumetza as well as generically, for about US$100 a year. It works just as well as other diabetes pills but does not cause weight gain or too-low blood sugar, the analysis found. It also lowers LDL or bad cholesterol. ...more