Online pharmacy weblog

Tech Lectures offers continuing education specifically for the Pharmacy Technicians and is recognized by both the Pharmacy Technician
Certification Board (PTCB) and is endorsed by both the American Association of Pharmacy Technicians (AAPT) and the Canadian
Association of Pharmacy Technicians (CAPT) as a means of getting your CE.

Currently we offer 22 lectures of which each one is worth a different number of credit hours. As a PTCB certified Pharmacy Technician you are required to have 20 hours of CE every two years with one hour being in Pharmacy Law. What makes Tech Lectures so nice is that you may pick whatever lectures you want, including that Pharmacy Law that adds up to 20 or 21 hours at an affordable price. Remember this is Pharmacy Technician specific and not geared for Pharmacists of which so many seem to complete, but learn nothing from.

All you need to do is order and the lectures will come to you via priority mail ready to be placed in a 3 ring binder, (although if you
wish, we do spiral bind them for an extra charge). Complete the lectures at your convenience as there is no expiration date to finish
them and then return the answer sheets to Tech Lectures for grading and issuance of Certificate of Completions. Many Techs have ordered all of the lectures to simply have them available in their 3 ring binder as a source of review and information.

Currently we are offering a summer special of which you can get 20 hours of your choosing for only 20.00 plus a one time 8.00 shipping
and handling fee.

To order go to the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/techlectures/securesp.html

This special is only for a few more days, so hurry and order.

You can go to the following URL for a list of lectures also:
http://www.geocities.com/techlectures/lectures.html

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Close to $63 billion worth of branded drugs are set to lose their patents between 2007 and 2012, paving the way for generic replicas.
This year, to date, the biggest drug to lose its patent has been Sanofi-Aventis’ $2.2-billion sleep medication, Ambien.

This spawned the approval of 13 generic equivalents of zolpidem tartrate within two days, under a cluster approval, a process that now
is being adopted by the Food and Drug Administration to quickly bring more drugs to market. (Sanofi-Aventis’ extended-release Ambien CR isn’t available in generic versions.) Generics approvals were given to companies including Teva, Mylan, Dr. Reddy’s and Watson. Prasco has released an authorized generic.

Another cluster approval this year was awarded for generic Lamisil tablets (terbinafine hydrochloride). The FDA approved products from
companies including Apotex, Aurobindo Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s, Glenmark and Wockhardt. This antifungal medication from Novartis saw annual U.S. sales of approximately $687 million for the 12 months ended March 2007, according to IMS Health data.

At the end of last year, the FDA approved the first generic versions of GlaxoSmithKline’s Wellbutrin XL (bupropion hydrochloride)
extended-release tablets, which are indicated for the treatment of major depressive disorder. WeHbutrin XL was the 21st highest-selling
brand name drug in the United States in 2005, with sales totaling $1.3 billion, and Anchen Pharmaceuticals was first to market with the
generic product, for which it received 180 days of marketing exclusivity. There are now generics available from Watson and Teva.
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Also toward the end of 2006, Pfizer lost patent protection on Norvasc, the world’s most-prescribed branded medicine for treating hypertension. The FDA approved generic amlodipine besylate 2.5 mg, 5 mg and 10 mg tablets from Mylan, giving the generic drug maker 180 days of exclusivity on the market. This period now has expired, and other generics are on the market from companies including Teva,
Ranbaxy and Roxane Laboratories.

Still to come this year is a genetic version of Schering-Plough’s Clarinex. This drug was launched in 2002 when Schering-Plough lost its
patent on the antihistamine blockbuster Claritin. Clarinex is, essentially, a tweaked version of its predecessor, and sales have been
disappointing: $722 million in 2006, a fraction of the $3 billion a year the drug maker saw for Claritin. Clarinex loses its patent on Oct. 1.

Migraine medication Imitrex from GSK lost its patent in June. GSK has granted Dr. Reddy’s authorized generic status for sumatriptan
succinate, which is expected to launch at the end of next year.

Meridian from Abbott Labs loses its patent protection on Dec. 11. This obesity drug had global sales of $345 million worldwide last year, $60 million of which originated in the United States. Generic versions of this drug may not be as attractive to manufacturers since the launch this year of FDA-approved OTC product Alli from GSK.

Pfizer’s antihistamine Zyrtec loses patent protection on Dec. 25. The FDA has granted tentative approval to an abbreviated new drug
application from Caraco for cetirizine hydrochloride, 5 mg and 10 mg immediate release tablets. Zyrtec had U.S. sales of approximately
$1.21 billion for the 12-month period ended Dec. 31, 2006, according to IMS Health data.

The last patent expiration of this year looks likely to be schizophrenia medication Risperdal from Janssen Pharma, which had annual sales of $4 billion.

Moving into 2008, branded drug patents will be falling by the wayside. Depakote (Abbott), Fosamax (Merck), Advair (GSK), Serevent (GSK), Effexor XR (Wyeth), Lamictal (GSK) and Topamax (Ortho McNeil) are all expected to go head-to-head with genetic competition.

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I understand that right now is ‘hump time’ as the kids are going back to school and because of other health issues in my/OUR community
right now both the ‘DOCS’ and the ‘PHARMACIES’ are understaffed and SWAMPED.

I understand and have empathy/sympathy for those that are upest/REALLY MAD at the ’system’ whether it be ‘HEALTHCARE’ in
genereal or that it took them ‘TOO LONG’ to get to ‘MY PHARMACY’ as we ‘offer’ many ‘products/services’ that are not available anywhere within a 200 mile radius of Corpus Christi, TX.

‘I’m sorry that Dr. ‘SOANDSO’ wrote BRAND MEDICALLY NECESSARY on your SALEX lotion script and that even with ‘good’ insurance, your Salicylic Acid Topical Lotion is going to cost you a $55.00 Co-Pay when the generic is $10.99 SELF-PAY price…’

AND…

‘NO, I CAN NOT GIVE YOU THE ‘GENERIC’ BECAUSE YOUR DOCTOR HAS ‘WRITTEN’ THAT THE ‘BRAND NAME’ IS ‘MEDICALLY NECESSARY’ AND I CAN NOT ‘KNOW’ ‘WHY’ THIS DOCTOR WROTE THIS PRESCRIPTION THIS WAY BUT I CAN NOT GIVE YOU THE GENERIC WITHOUT HER/HIS AUTHORIZATION. I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY YOU ARE UPSET! WE’LL CALL HER IN THE MORNING.’

No, Ms. ‘USUAL MONTHLY B/C GAL’:

“This birth control pill now has a GENERIC and it will not be the SAME CO-PAY as the BRAND-NAME if you CHOOSE the BRAND vs the GENERIC! I KNOW that this is a very PERSONAL medication and of all ‘THINGS’ you might ‘doubt’ the ‘ABILITY’ of a B/C pill ‘NAMED’ LESSTHANA but…”

YOUR CO-PAY WILL NOT BE THE ‘SAME’ or YOUR INS. JUST WILL NOT PAY MORE THAN 10% for DAW 2.

I can try to ‘understand’ other special cases when because of our ‘FORMULARY’, I’ll have to ‘TAKE’ the ‘FRUSTRATIONS’ of the mother
of a person with Hansen’s who has been on Greyhound for 2 days to get to my Pharmacy from the Colonia where she lives 300+ miles from the ‘BORDER’.

She knows she has 1 more day to wait for the PA, and then 2 more days on Greyhound back to the place where she lives where there are NO DRIVE-THRUS and we are the closest Pharmacy that sells Thalomid!

I feel really ‘good’ about both what I am doing now and what I strive to be in the future when I am able to work with Hospice Nurses
and ‘Specialists’ to ‘USE MY SKILLS’ to make peoples’ lives…

‘BETTER!’

And, of course, not everyone is going to be HAPPY.

Folks get upset.

Such is human nature.

Some are upset because they have been ‘promised’ too much:

“ANY prescription you bring to the Pharmacy will be filled in 15 minutes or we’ll give you a $1001010101.00 ‘GIFT CARD’ even if its a
COMPOUND and would you like FRIES WITH THAT?”

This is how I often ‘FEEL’ as a ‘NORMAL’ issue with folks that ‘THINK’ that for whatever reason that ‘WE’ have made them ‘WAIT
TOO LONG’ and that because of OUR ‘MISTAKE’ as they ‘PERCEIVE IT’ WE owe them something ‘EXTRA’ other than the fact that they got what they were prescribed CORRECTLY and WE’LL WORK HARD FOR THEM TO ASSURE THEY GET EVERYTHING THAT THEY ‘DESERVE’…

We ‘bill’ correctly.

We contact them in the most timely manner if we have information that needs to be updated.

We work with DOCS to try to get ‘DIFFERENT/MORE AFFORDABLE/AND MORE SAFE’ medications as a part of what we consider a ‘complete’ healthcare ‘team’, not just a…

(In the Taco Bell Dog’s Voice)

“Welcome to …, can I take your order?”

As a very ‘busy’ Pharmacy, we are also the target of folks that would like to pull a ‘fast one’ on us.

I have had to give ‘information’ to law enforcement more in the past year as a CPhT than I ever did working for TABC (Texas Alcoholic
Beverage Comm) liscenced ‘On Premise’ establishments.

I find it kind of strange that I could ‘OWN’ a liscense to sell alcohol in TX for more than 2 years and I only had to ‘CALL’EM’ 1
time!

So now when I feel that I ‘MAYBE’ ‘SHOULD’…

‘CALL THEM’… (LAW ENFORCEMENT)

I DON’T WANT TO feel that I might be becoming kind of a ’scardey-cat’

BUT:

When faced with the following situation, what would any of us DO?

At just after 10:00 PM last night I went to ’service’ a DRIVE-THRU customer as I had noticed had ‘DRIVEN-UP’ to the side of my Pharmacy.

I am really too darn busy right now to ‘judge’ folks by the kind of car that they drive or who they ‘ARE’ even if I ‘KNOW’ them unless
there is something ‘SPECIAL’ that I ‘KNOW’ ahead of time that is ‘GOING ON’ with them so in all honesty, I really don’t pay too much attention to the ‘CAR’ or the ‘PERSON’ in the car or what they are ‘picking up’ as long as I have no reason to be uncertain about what a customer needs.

So I really was just not ‘ready’ with my ‘usual defenses’ when I was ‘confronted’ with a REALLY TATOOED UP GUY in a late model CADDY that had some ‘ROAD WEAR’….

BOTH THE CAR AND THE DRIVER WERE ‘WORN’…

And I guess I must have ‘looked twice’ when the the driver asked…

“C’C'C’OULD YOU GET ME SUM WATER?”

Stuttering always makes me ‘look’ twice.

Then the guy who I was now sharing an uncomfortable moment with as he had decided to bring himself to ME ‘NOTICED’ that I was paying some ‘attention’ to…

TOLD ME:

“GIVE ME SOME WATER AND A BAG OF U-100 SY”

I cut him off in mid sentence.

I said, “I absolutely don’t sell syringes through the ‘window’ and I need you to come inside.”

This guy just ‘looked’ paranoid. If you have Clozaril patients, then you know what I mean when I say that this man’s eyes are lifeless.

He had lost voluntary control of his jaw muscles and was ‘chewing Columbian cud’.

I didn’t get to the point where I could even ask if he needed insulin when he told me:

“We’re here in town, and we’ll be buying syringes! Are you not going to…”

I cut him off again and told him that I absolutely will not sell anything to him through the DRIVE-THRU.

I hope you folks don’t read this message later and have to think:

Gee…

Christian’s ‘example’ was something that ‘WE’ should have thought of before we…

DID NOT TELL ‘SOME SORT OF AUTHORITIES’ about SOMETHING!

This turkey pretty much told me that I would be ‘NEXT’ which I ‘KNOW’ from past experiences is BS stupid ‘BRAVADO’ from a coke/speed FIEND who I want to keep away from my ‘LEGITIMATE’ customers who are upset because their children are DYING and a ‘SHOOT-OUT’ is not what the WORLD NEEDS…

AND THIS TURKEY WENT AWAY AS THESE TURKIES NORMALLY DO…

But I most definately looked ‘both ways’ when I walked out the front door this past evening.

And I will NOT let FEAR make my professional judgements for me.

I hope that we can all have the ‘guts’ to be this ‘way’ in any situation in which we feel ‘challenged’!

I don’t mean that you should put yourself in physical danger just that we should we should NEVER feel that we are helpless.

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