It’s a provocative question currently pending before the Nevada Supreme Court. The case is part of a broader movement under way to place more responsibility for patients’ prescription-drug use on pharmacies. Click here for Amy Merrick’s page-one story in the WSJ.

The facts of the Nevada case are undeniably tragic. On the afternoon of June 4, 2004, a woman named Patricia Copening climbed into a gray Dodge Durango, veered onto a Nevada highway and plowed into a delivery-van driver who had pulled over to repair a flat tire on the highway’s shoulder, killing him at the scene. She also hit another man, causing a head injury, a broken right leg and other wounds. Copening wasn’t injured.

A lawsuit filed by the victims and their families against Wal-Mart, who dispensed a painkiller prescription to Copening, asks whether drugstores must use information at their disposal to protect the public from potentially dangerous customers. In this case, state officials had sent letters to 14 pharmacies in the Las Vegas area warning that Copening could be abusing drugs.

As a result, consumers, government officials and pharmacies themselves are increasingly asking what a jobs.pharmacy-bg.com/”title=”pharmacy” >pharmacy is legally and ethically obligated to do with this newly available information.

On the one hand, federal regulators have acknowledged that pharmacists should be held legally accountable in egregious situations. In guidelines to pharmacists, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration says: “The pharmacist who deliberately looks the other way when there is reason to believe that the purported prescription had not been issued for a legitimate medical purpose, may be prosecuted. . . . ”

However, drugstores worry Sanchez could open them to broader and more ambiguous responsibility with significant consequences to the industry.

Some predict higher insurance costs and more expensive prescriptions, to absorb the costs of additional lawsuits. In filings, Wal-Mart argued that pharmacies might decide not to stock certain regulated painkillers. Walgreen suggested that the judgment of pharmacists could be pitted against that of doctors, as pharmacists struggle to decide whether to refuse a prescription.

Across the country, recent court decisions have expanded pharmacists’ responsibility. In 1994, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that a pharmacy had a duty to stop dispensing painkillers to a patient who was refilling a prescription faster than normally would be appropriate.

In the Nevada case, Clark County district court Judge Douglas W. Herndon dismissed the pharmacies from the suit, noting that the Nevada law creating the task force doesn’t specify what action, if any, is required by the pharmacies.

The families appealed to the state Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in March.

Lawyers for the pharmacies argue that, while drugstores may choose not to sell drugs to a customer, they had no legal obligation to turn away Copening or to protect the general public from her actions.

In a statement, Walgreen said: “While we’re sympathetic to those injured in Ms. Copening’s car accident, we agree with the district judge’s decision that our pharmacists fulfilled their legal duties.” Similarly, Wal-Mart said, “This is a deep personal tragedy for the families involved.” Because the court hasn’t issued its decision, “we don’t believe it’s appropriate to say more at this time,” the company said.

Bad Medicine: On Painkillers, Pharmacies and the Law is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

As the national swine flu vaccination campaign kicked off Monday in three states — Indiana, Illinois, and Tennessee — there was little new information about when such an effort might start in Taylor County.

While the Abilene Independent School District is seeing an earlier onset of flu season than normal, some Abilene pharmacies struggled Tuesday to provide enough jobs.pharmacy-bg.com/tag/vaccine/”title=”vaccine” >vaccine protecting against seasonal strains.

Linda Langston, director of health services with the Abilene Independent School District, said the AISD has not seen a spike in absences, with the number of students out remaining fairly steady over recent weeks. Last week, there were 77 confirmed cases of flu and 135 flu-like cases reported through school nurses, she said.

Flu-related absences are not targeting any particular school but are pretty evenly spread out through the school system, she said.

The number of students out sick has been only about a percentage point or two more than normal, Langston said.

“It’s really not any worse than it was at this time last year,” she said.

What has changed is the mixture of illnesses present on local campuses.

“At this time last year, we weren’t seeing as much flu,” she said. “We’re seeing flu a lot earlier this year than we ever have seen it in the past.”

Joey Light, superintendent of the Wylie Independent School District, said that districtwide absences stand at 249, a figure that represents a 92.6 attendance rate. Average yearly attendance stands around 96 percent, he said.

Light guessed the numbers would be typical for a flu season.

Jody Manuel, a physician assistant at the Minor Emergency Clinic on South 27th Street, said that the clinic was seeing what he would classify as “influenza syndrome,” with not as many positive cases derived from rapid flu tests as one might expect.

“We have about 60 percent actually coming up positive” with a detectable strain of flu, he said.

Rapid tests provide results within 15 minutes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results depend entirely on the test administered, with some able to identify the difference between common types of influenza, others that can identify such viruses but cannot distinguish between types.

Like many places that have offer seasonal flu injections in Abilene, the clinic had run out of shots Monday evening, though it expected a new shipment possibly today.

Abilene pharmacist James McCoy said that there seems to be a “major shortage” of seasonal flu vaccine.

McCoy said that while some Abilene businesses may have received all of their requested doses, others only got 25 percent to 30 percent of their orders.

“Right now all the focus is going on H1N1,” he said, saying that the shortage seemed to be nationwide.

That means many businesses, McCoy’s included, spent much time on the phone Monday looking for more supply.

“We’re being told that later in October or around the first of November, when all the H1N1 (vaccine) gets sent out, that they may have some more released,” McCoy said.

Steve Owen, owner of Owen Pharmacy, said Monday that he couldn’t satisfy his demand for seasonal flu shots, and was on the phone with a third-party company to buy more.

“The reason there’s a shortage is that the two major manufacturers, thanks to Washington, D.C., are discontinuing their seasonal flu immunizations and going to the H1N1,” he said. “That’s the directive they’ve been given by the CDC in Atlanta from Barack Obama’s office.”

The vaccines cannot be produced at the same time, he said.

“You can’t do both at once,” he said, While the H1N1 flu can be deadly, Owen said that one needs the seasonal flu shot before they get “anything else.”

“That’s what a lot of people aren’t going to get this year, unfortunately,” he said.

More than 200,000 people in the United States are hospitalized from flu-related complications each year, and about 36,000 people die from flu-related causes, according to the CDC Web site.

The city of Abilene recently exhausted its supply of seasonal vaccine for adults, with children’s vaccine in “very limited” supply, said Larry Johnson, health administrator for the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District.

Additional vaccine may be available later this month, with information released if supplies are replenished, Johnson said.

“Some local providers may receive shipments in October,” Johnson said, meaning people should contact health care providers and/or local pharmacies for availability.

A limited supply of H1N1 nasal mist vaccine — 237,000 doses — will be available to Texas for the week ending Oct. 9, Johnson said.

The vaccine will be allocated by the Texas Department of Health Services to some health care providers who have registered to receive it, he said.

But because allotments are small, supplies are too limited to begin significant vaccination programs. Initial shipments to state health department regions and local health departments will also be very small, he said.

“The health district will provide additional information as it becomes available,” Johnson said.

Pharmacies await swine flu vaccine is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

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.

Around 1241 was adopted by the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II, the “Edict of Salerno” (also called “Constitutions” or Medizinalordnung): the first legally fixed separation of the professions of doctor and pharmacist. Doctors could not own pharmacy or be involved. Drug prices have been enshrined in law in order to prevent price gouging. The Edict of Salerno was modeled on pharmacy laws in Europe.

Following the enactment of the developed urban pharmacies Medizinalordnung orders, which set that pharmacies may not be based solely on the sale of drugs.

During the 14th Century are changing the pharmacists from street vendors to wealthy patrician, who not only sells herbs, spices and drugs, but also produces own medicines in the dispensary (Latin officina). From this period dates the oldest still-existing pharmacy in Europe: 1241 in Trier, was opened a pharmacy, which still exists today. Later shifted to the production of drugs from the dispensary in the recipe, but still (to be professionals in the showroom), the workrooms of a pharmacy or (deprecated) even called the pharmacy dispensary.

Pharmacies X Germany X Pharmacy X History

Since the economic viability of pharmacies that time also depends on diseases and epidemics, was in some places there were supply problems, if no such long period of time occurred. To prevent this, were in the 15th Century, for example built in Lower Austria by the so-called Country Estates Landscape pharmacies.

In the 17th and 18 Century, German chemists developed from the place of manufacture of medicines due to the knowledge of chemistry and a place of drug discovery. Especially in Berlin, Thuringia and Saxony focused pharmaceutical and chemical research and teaching in Germany.
Pharmacy sales in 1900

Through the achievements of the pharmaceutical industry at the end of the 19 starts and early 20 Century, a shift of the German pharmacy. Rather than produce medicines themselves increasingly engaged in the pharmacy, to consider the quality and identity of drugs and advice about drugs.

In 1958, following a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court (see Case pharmacies) the freedom introduced since then so may open each pharmacist a pharmacy on site of their choice, regardless of need. Because of drug price regulation which set uniform prices of drugs so far for all of Germany’s competition took place not on price but also partly by the granting of so-called gifts, but especially on the expertise of the pharmaceutical consulting, delivery, service, friendliness, special or additional services (drug-delivery service for customers who can not themselves come to the pharmacy, increased range of expertise in specific areas, etc.). Recently, the pharmaceutical price regulation is more flexible, it is feared that this increased competition will take place over the price and charged to the pharmaceutical quality, as competent advice is time consuming and labor-intensive and are also making only with highly qualified personnel is, in turn, to higher operating results as a mere sale.
Mobile dispensary in the town of Pomßen, 1988

In the Soviet occupied zone, the German Economic Commission (DWK) had on 22 June 1949, the expropriation of the pharmacies and thus all rights to have been declared extinct. Owners who themselves were pharmacists, but given the right to operate as a “privately owned pharmacies to continue” may, if the service charges were paid. By the owners or heirs leased pharmacies “state pharmacies, the owners have received compensation as a share of the proceeds of the” holding charges “. Only in 1954 precise amounts of compensation was determined and accounted for 30 to 50% of the average annual turnover, net of possible exposure amounts to pharmacies. The payment was made centrally planned economy after five years. Newly established pharmacies in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were basically “country pharmacies” that have been leased or managed as a hospital pharmacy. The number of “Private pharmacies” in 1956 amounted to around 298 by 1533 pharmacies (= 19.4%) and the number decreased steadily until it just “state pharmacies or pharmacy gave clinics. Due to the poor economic opportunities, many fully trained pharmacists emigrated in 1951 to the West, so that the state leadership was forced to adopt the Soviet model called pharmaceutical engineers as the mean medical personnel with training in vocational schools, for example, the then Pharmacy school Leipzig.
Modernized Pharmacy in Berlin-Lichtenberg, 1991

In the 21 Century, the pharmacy in many transformed into a modern and profitable company. In Germany, approximately 21,500 pharmacies to provide uninterrupted, 365 days a year, the population with drugs. In customer satisfaction surveys, the German pharmacies situated in typically top positions.

Pharmacies X Germany X Pharmacy X History

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A report released Aug. 4 found that nearly 90 percent of Microsoft Bing’s sponsored search results for prescription drugs and pharmacies lead to rogue operations.

The report, (PDF) authored by anti-spam outfit KnujOn and online pharmacy locator LegitScript, found that 89.7 percent of the pharmacies paying for ads on Microsoft’s search engine are engaged in illegal activity.

Some of the pharmacies are linked to Russian and Eastern European organized crime syndicates and allow people to purchase prescription drugs without a prescription, according to the report. Other medications sold through the dubious pharmacies are counterfeit, the researchers said.

For its part, Microsoft says it has rules in place to deal with rogue pharmacies. The company requires online pharmacy advertisers to have PharmacyChecker certification. LegitScript certifies the legitimacy of online pharmacies as well.

“We take these claims very seriously and are currently investigating this issue,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “Microsoft’s guidelines clearly require online pharmacies who advertise on Bing to adhere to U.S. laws.”

Still, officials at LegitScript contended that the study shows companies are profiting from the illegal sale of medication with the appearance of Microsoft’s approval.

“We identified serious security gaps in Microsoft’s online advertising program, allowing a rogue Internet pharmacy like store.k2med.com to advertise under the name of a domestic, U.S.-licensed pharmacy but redirect traffic to the no-prescription-required fake Website,” said a company post on LegitScript’s blog. “This happened in several cases, which is bad news for Bing.com’s advertisers.”

“LegitScript and KnujOn are releasing this report in the hope that it will encourage Microsoft to discontinue allowing such Websites to participate in Bing.com’s online advertising program,” the LegitScript blog entry added.

Microsoft Bing Benefits from Ads for Illegal Online Pharmacies, Report Charges is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

AMMAN – Hundreds of pharmacies outside the capital observed a four-hour work stoppage on Sunday to protest a sales tax on pharmaceuticals, despite calls by the Jordan Pharmacists Association (JPhA) to call off the strike.

“All” pharmacies in Mafraq, Ajloun, Karak and Salt decided to ignore the JPhA council and shut their doors from 8:00am until noon, according to association activists.

Moreover, around 90 per cent of pharmacies in Zarqa, Jerash and Madaba also joined the work stoppage, according to Malik Saad Maaitah, an activist from the JPhA’s Zarqa branch.

On Saturday, JPhA President Taher Shakhshir issued a statement calling on all pharmacies to refrain from closing their doors on the grounds that an agreement with the government over the controversial law was imminent.

But the JPhA council decision did not sit well with the leaders of some JPhA branches, who decided to act on their own, according to Maaitah.

“We have documented and taken pictures of the pharmacies that shut down in Zarqa, and other cities in the north. I can say almost all pharmacies in seven cities joined the strike,” Maaitah told The Jordan Times.

He said pharmacies that abided by the JPhA decision to cancel the strike were limited to Amman, Irbid and Aqaba.

“The issue of the strike unveiled great differences among our leadership. The JPhA council attempted to pressure pharmacies not to strike, but they didn’t give in,” said Maaitah.

A crisis within the JPhA leadership has been brewing for months, after a special association committee on the sales tax decided to break off negotiations with the government and called for a strike.

The move was met with fierce criticism from Shakhshir, whose bloc controls the JPhA council.

Earlier this month, four members of the committee resigned in protest against the JPhA president’s refusal to commit to the planned protest.

The four withdrew their resignations after Shakhshir promised to go ahead with the work stoppage.

According to Shakhshir, a “limited” number of pharmacies observed the strike.

The association president ruled out “disciplinary measures” against pharmacies that closed their doors.

“To ignore our calls is part of freedom of expression. We will not punish anybody because of that,” he told The Jordan Times.

Last month, the JPhA launched a campaign to collect one million signatures on a petition demanding an end to the sales tax on pharmaceuticals, which has been in place since 2002.

The government has included 600 out of the Kingdom’s 1,800 pharmacies in the Sales Tax Law, with only pharmacies that annually earn JD75,000 or more subject to taxation.

Pharmacists in 7 cities strike in defiance of association leadership -pharmacies is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Pharmacy Communities pages with S is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

• Rx Care Canada, 96 Durand Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2J 3T2 Canada
• Rx Trust Pharmacy Canadian, 829-6081 No. 3Rd. Richmond, BC V6Y2B2 Canada
• Rx-counter.com, 1440 Ste-Catherine, #429, Montreal, QC H3G 1R8
• Rx1.biz Pharmacy, 123 St.Anne’s Road Winnipeg, Manitoba R2M 2Z1
• Rx4us, 3114 Boundary Road Burnaby, BC Canada, V5M 4A2
• RxCareCanada [314]
• RxPadPharmacy, 110 2nd Avenue NW, Roblin, Manitoba R0L 1P0
• RxZone.US Online Registered Pharmacy, 152 7 Street Garden City, NY 11530

• Real Canadian Meds, 75107 – 8165 Main St. Vancouver, BC V5X 4V7 Canada
• Regel Pharmalab, Specializing in Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy., 1679 Bonnie Lane Suite 101 Cordova, TN 38016 866-90-Regel
• Regency Medical Pharmacy, 1000 Newbury Road, Ste 100 Newbury Park, Ca 91320
• Rite Care Pharmacy, 17200 Ventura Blvd., Suite 223A, Encino, CA 91316, USA
• Roseveville Pharmacy Web Site, 7 Roseville St, Jersey, UK
• Rushworth Pharmacy, 497, Oldham Road, Rochdale, Lancashire, England

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Pharmacy Innovations, 863 Fairmount Avenue WE Jamestown, NY 14701 Phone: 716-484-1586 Toll Free: 1-888-844-4573 Fax: 716-488-0073 3330 W. 26th Street Erie, PA 16506

Community Pharmacy in Pharmacy P is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Across the country, we hear stories of individual pharmacists and pharmacies refusing to fill prescriptions based on a religious objection. Many times these stories come from patients trying to fill prescriptions for birth control, including emergency contraception.

Because the ACLU is committed to the health care needs of patients and the religious freedom of individual pharmacy employees, we advocate for solutions that protect both. So we were quite pleased when the Board of Pharmacy in Washington State issued rules that do exactly that. These rules, passed in 2007, make it clear that pharmacies have the responsibility to fill all valid prescriptions and satisfy all lawful requests for drugs like emergency contraception that certain patients can get without a prescription from behind the counter. An individual pharmacist with a religious objection will be able to ask another pharmacist on duty to provide the medicine, but in all cases, the pharmacy must provide the medication in a timely manner.

Our excitement for the rules was replaced with bewilderment when a federal district court blocked their enforcement pending trial; in Stormans, Inc. v. Selecky, the court said that the rules likely violated the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty. And we weren’t the only ones who disagreed with the district court’s analysis: on Wednesday, the 9th Circuit lifted the injunction on Washington State’s pharmacy rules and found that the trial judge abused his discretion.

The 9th Circuit held that the purpose of the rules “was not to eliminate religious objections to the delivery of lawful medicines, but to eliminate all objections that do not ensure patient health, safety, and access to medication.” The court noted that “the rules actually provide for religious accommodation — an individual pharmacist can decide whether to dispense a particular medication based on his religious beliefs and a particular pharmacy may continue to employ that pharmacist by making appropriate accommodations.”

Stormans, Inc. v. Selecky, was filed by two individual pharmacists and a pharmacy. Seven Washington patients, represented by Legal Voice and Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, intervened in the case to help the state defend the rules. The case now returns to the district court.

9th Circuit Fills Prescription for Religious Refusals at the Pharmacy is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools