[NRSKarenRN]

Second time in six months couldn't get my theophylline RX filled due to "manufacturer's shortage" ---this is a common med!!!! What must it be like for people with rare illness and needing ophan drug.... can only imagine what hoops they go thru


HEALTH CARE:PHARMACEUTICALS

Shortages in medication increase expenses for pharmacies
From the August 15, 2003 print edition of the The Business Journal of Kansas City

Lainie Mazzullo
Contributing Writer

As pharmaceutical companies slow down or stop distributing certain drugs, hospitals often are forced to order medications from third-party distributors, which can be an expensive proposition.

Health care professionals said patient demand far outweighs supply. The frequency of medication shortages has been increasing since the late 1990s and risen drastically in the past few years, said Jack Bond, director of pharmacy at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.

Bond said he has a list of about 25 to 30 drugs he's "scrambling" to find. Although he doesn't have an average of how much the shortages cost every year, Bond said the cost to keep a single drug stocked can go from $125,000 a year to more than $300,000 in a year.

Full story:
http://www.bizjournals.com/industrie...ty_focus6.html

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Some pharmacists begin making their own medicine again

Aug. 15, 2003, 10:12PM
By MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press


ORD, Neb. -- From the shelves of over-the-counter medicine to the Russell Stover candy display, there's not much to distinguish the Good Life Discount Pharmacy from most other small-town drug stores.

That is, until you see the 11-by-50-foot laboratory downstairs.

It's here that two pharmacists and three technicians are doing the work that big pharmacies don't want to do, or don't have time to do. In this stark white and brightly lit room, pharmacists use traditional tools such as the mortar and pestle -- albeit now computerized -- to make customized medicines by hand for their patients.

"We have tried to find a niche," said co-owner Angie Svoboda, one of the pharmacists. "There's a need out there, and we capitalized on that need."

Most people picture their pharmacy as the corner chain store that dispenses pills mass produced by drug companies.

"Their whole service is to fill as many darn prescriptions as they possibly can because that's their profit," said Jim Andreesen, Good Life Pharmacy's other pharmacist and co-owner.

But when it comes to medicine, it's not always a one-size-fits-all situation, and that's where compounding pharmacists come in.

There are patients who have specific medicinal needs that are not met by the mass-produced market. Often, doctors will consult with a compounding pharmacist to tailor a medical compound for the patient.

Full story:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/health/2051226

[NRSKarenRN]

Link to drug shortage list:
http://ashp.org/shortage/index.cfm?c...Token=40447864

HEPARIN even on the list!

[oramar]

I recently had same problem with Questran. I know most people think of it as a anti cholesterol drug but it is also quite effective in controling the type of diarrhea associated with post choley surgery. My life came to screeching halt, I could not go out of the house for fear of accident. Thank goodness it became avaliable again. I guess I am lucky, I merely had an embarassing condition, my life was in no danger.