Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Today, the U.S. patent expires on the Pfizer’s Lipitor, the best-selling drug of all time. The first generic versions will go for sale, marking the end of a brand that has dominated the drug industry, lowered the cholesterol of tens of millions of patients, and generated more in annual sales than Major League Baseball or the entire box office of U.S. movies.

There may never be another medicine like it. That’s because of fundamental shifts in our understanding of biology, because of the demands made by patients, doctors, and society on new drugs, and because new drugs now have to compete with the super-cheap, generic versions of every medicine ever invented. Already, eight of ten prescriptions are for generics, and the drug industry is focusing on higher priced, specialty products for patients who are not helped by existing options. Good luck creating a new cholesterol drug as potent, safe for most people, and widely tested as Lipitor. Read more…

Good news! You learn that today, November 30, 2011, a generic version of Lipitor® is going on sale for the first time. You have been using Lipitor® as an adjunct to your diet to reduce your cholesterol, So you run down to the pharmacy and ask to have the generic atorvastatin, at a fraction of the price you have been paying for Lipitor®, the world’s top selling drug made by Pfizer.

What happens? There’s a good chance you’ll be told by the pharmacist that generic atorvastatin is “not available” but brand-name Lipitor® is. Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. (RBXY)’s copy of the $10.7 billion Lipitor cholesterol pill was released in the U.S., sending its share up the most in six months and threatening sales for Pfizer Inc. (PFE)

Ranbaxy, India’s biggest drugmaker, won approval to sell generic versions of the world’s top-selling medicine by the Food and Drug Administration yesterday. The company, based near New Delhi, will share profit on the first six months’ sales with Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA), Ranbaxy said today, adding that terms of the agreement won’t be disclosed.

Ranbaxy sought to persuade the FDA that its copies are equivalent to the original and that approval shouldn’t be thwarted by an ongoing dispute about plant violations in India. The FDA approval was for products made at a plant in New Jersey which may have been contingent on a deal with Teva, said Bino Pathiparampil, a health-care analyst at IIFL Ltd. in Mumbai. Read more…

Medicines that require counseling and, therefore, may be sold only in pharmacies, subject to the pharmacies. This medication safety should be granted. A prescription is not necessary as long as the drug is prescription.

The simple requirement is governed by Pharmacy Drugs Act § 43. Pharmacy-only medicines are medicines in simple terms, which may be sold only by pharmacy staff. It is part of the pharmacy staff counseling requirement (unless the customer expressly rejects a consultancy).

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Today is subjected to the pharmacy, both as an institution and companies more than ever, numerous statutory provisions such as the Medicines Act, the Pharmacy factory regulations and with the Social Security (Germany). This pushes them into a tight corset that leaves little flexibility for modern business management in terms of price, communication and product policy. Pharmacies should be the main focus of the self of the independent pharmacist counseling of patients, respectively customers. Often, however, advised the politically by continuing legislative changes induced by forced sales and the desire, the best for the customer to do, coexist. The call for open competition among pharmacies with a legitimate product by cheapening the one hand, many see pharmacists associated with the risk of the worse advice and harmful additional consumption of medicines for patients, with the continued existence of the other economic risks.

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Pharmacies X Germany X Pharmacy X History

Modern depiction of a medieval apothecary, Archeon
Pharmacy (presentation of 1508)
The Moors Pharmacy in Bayreuth

The forerunner of the pharmacies were in the 8th and 9 Century spice trader based in the Middle East.

The first “Pharmacies” in Germany were of merchants who drove with herbs and spices trade, as a kind of run grocery store. Read more…