Columns:: Worth repeating

since 12/15/98

Columns::September 2, 2003

Worth repeating

Jack Fincham, dean of the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, delivered the Waters Lecture for the College of Pharmacy on Aug. 21. Some excerpts:
“The need for involvement in medication-related issues--compliance, counterfeit drugs, drug use in the elderly, drug errors and reimbursement--has never been greater. Pharmacy education can impact all of what is being discussed today, but dealing with ethics, service learning and the scope of pharmacy practice are immediate concerns. . . .
“Spending for prescription drugs in the United States has skyrocketed in the recent past. . . . Health insurance entities offering drug benefits, regardless of type (public or private), have seen costs increase. . . .
“Market-driven usage of prescription drugs has come under increasing scrutiny concerning the use of costly alternatives rather than less expensive therapies that might be equally advantageous. More and more of these types of comparisons are appearing in magazines and newspapers. A good share of the success of the pharmaceutical industry is due to lobbying efforts, which have been substantive and effective. Unlikely advocates for cost containment have emerged. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency charged with regulation of the drug approval process in the United States, has recently been a proponent of generic drug usage. . . .
“Pharmacists can play a major role in cost-containment activities, but without some effort to control costs at a global level, the extent to which costs can decrease is not what it could conceivably be. The United States is the remaining industrialized country without some type of price controls on drugs.”

--Beth Roberts

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