10 Steps to Develop and Implement a Pharmaceutical Waste Management Program

Step 1 begins with some action items that you can begin immediately.

Step 2 is an overview of how the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations apply to pharmaceutical waste management.

Step 3 begins where the regulations leave off providing guidance on how to manage nonregulated hazardous pharmaceutical waste.

Step 4 walks you through the steps necessary to perform a drug inventory review. This step can be very tedious and time consuming.

Step 5 alerts you to waste minimization opportunities. It will be helpful to become familiar with the waste minimization opportunities before assessing your current practices based on the guidance provided in Step 6. Review these opportunities again upon completion of the department reviews.

Step 6 discusses performing department reviews and determining your generator status.

Step 7, taking on the Communication/Labeling Challenge, is one of the most critical aspects of implementing a pharmaceutical waste management program and possibly the most challenging. How you decide to communicate pharmaceutical disposition information to the people handling the waste will depend and be dependent upon which of the management options presented in Step 8 you select.

Step 8, Considering the Management Options, introduces you to five implementation models that have worked for other hospitals. You may choose one model or a hybrid.

Step 9, Getting Ready for Implementation, assists you with vendor selection, satellite and storage accumulation, and pilot program development.

Step 10, Launching the Program, is the culmination of the first nine steps, plus the actual roll-out to the entire facility.

Details on these 10 steps will be forthcoming in future editions of this Newsletter.

http://www.hercenter.org/hazmat/tenstepblueprint.pdf

News

India Curbs Exports of Key Drugs as Coronavirus Disrupts Factories
Drug makers are struggling to get vital raw ingredients for common antibiotics and vitamins from Chinese factories, which were closed for weeks as China battled to contain the coronavirus. The disruption is being felt most acutely in India, where the authorities ordered the country's vast pharmaceutical industry to stop exporting 26 drugs and drug ingredients, most of them antibiotics, without explicit government permission. That's a problem for the rest of the world, which relies on India's drug makers for much of its supply of generic drugs. India exports about one-fifth of the world's exports of generics by volume.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/business/coronavirus-india-drugs.html

China Turns Roche Arthritis Drug Actemra Against COVID-19 in New Treatment Guidelines
Roche's blockbuster Actemra, first approved by the U.S. FDA in 2010 for rheumatoid arthritis, can now be used to treat serious coronavirus patients with lung damage, China's National Health Commission said in its updated treatment guidelines (Chinese) for COVID-19.
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma-asia/china-turns-roche-arthritis-drug-actemra-against-covid-19-new-treatment-guidelines

Q&A: Compounding Pearls: Wound Care, Base Selection (Mike Riepl)
(From the soon to be received March-April 2020 issue of IJPC.)

1. Which factors should be considered when bases and active drugs are selected for combination in wound-healing preparations?

2. Can commercially available bases be altered to produce a desired effect?

Did You Know ...

...that George Washington said the following?

"Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession."

Tip of the Week

Throughout life it is always a challenge to know just how far to let something/someone go before "pulling in the reins." This is true in raising one's family, in the workplace, in the community, and even in politics. Experience is a good teacher and truthful education is paramount as a foundation for good decisions.

IJPC Now on Facebook and Youtube

Become a fan of the IJPC Facebook page and share ideas, photos, and keep up to date with the latest compounding information - https://www.facebook.com/IJPCompounding

View our growing collection of educational and training videos at www.ijpc.com/video or by subscribing to our Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/IJPCompounding.

Looking Back

A shave that's real,
No cuts to heal,
A soothing
Velvet after-feel!