AP has a brief story about how the North Dakota chapter of the American Cancer Society (ACS) is looking for ways of getting unused anti-cancer drugs to those who can’t afford them, based on successful programs in other states.
It’s a great idea as long as the pills are not damaged or contaminated and thus those who get to use them can be confident of them being as safe as purchased drugs. Since it is possible in other states, one would think that it should be quite doable in North Dakota, as long as there are enough doctors and pharmacists available or willing to help track the medicines.
One potential stumbling block for participants is a fear of criminal or civil liability suits. Even though legislation providing the relevant immunity is in existence over in the state of Ohio, it apparently still has been difficult to recruit nursing homes and pharmaceutical companies over there because of these concerns. I guess that the successful examples of programs in other states should be continually highlighted to allay those fears.
The head of the state Board of Pharmacy for North Dakota, Howard Anderson, said there are plans to look into setting up a program through “the administrative rule process, rather than through the Legislature”, which would take five months. This sounds like a positive development. Even though the state Heath Department isn’t involved, things are moving along.
Contrast this with the treatment meted out to the charity Intercare in England. For the past 30 years, with the help of retired doctors and pharmacists checking the reliability of all surplus drugs being channelled to the charity through a network of GPs, they have managed to get a variety of unused drugs out to over a million people in Africa.
Unfortunately, as I explained last month, some zealous human beings from the UK government’s Environment Agency have decided that the surplus pills are properly considered waste according to EU regulations and should be put in a landfill. Intercare have had to suspend all operations dealing with returned medicines pending possible prosecution, even though they been endorsed by the World Health Organisation. Disgusting.
