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Sodium Thiopental Discontinued
Sodium thiopental, a drug used in executions, will soon no longer be available. Hospira has stated it did not intend for the drug to be used in executions. It planned to start making sodium thiopental at a plant in Italy, but Italian authorities required the company to guarantee the chemical would not be used in executions; capital punishment is outlawed in Italy and throughout Europe. With the issues surrounding the product along with the requirements and challenges of bringing the drug back to market, Hospira has decided to discontinue the product.
In addition to its use in executions, sodium thiopental is used as an anesthetic for brief surgical procedures and some kinds of hypnosis. Many state prison systems have run out of the drug and some states have turned to pentobarbital.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/21/sole-maker-of-execution-drug-says-its-pulling-out-of-market/
Using Small Syringes to Prepare Small Doses of Medication from Syringes May Be Inaccurate
Preparing small doses of medications from syringes can be inaccurate and lead to dangerous dosing errors for infants and small children. The problem addressed in a recent study is that small doses of potent drugs for young patients are often prepared using volumes of less than 0.1 mL; however, the syringes often used do not permit the accurate measurement of volumes that small. Medications often involved include narcotics and sedatives such as morphine, lorazepam, and fentanyl, as well as immunosuppressants.
In both hypothetical and clinical studies, the investigators looked at 71,218 intravenous doses given to 1,531 infants and children admitted to an intensive care unit in 2006. Of those, 7.4 percent required volumes of less than 0.1 mL of stock solution, and 17.5 percent required volumes of less than 0.2 mL.
The small volumes are required because of the relatively low doses needed for infants and young children and the relatively high concentrations of commercially available products. This study appears in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
(Editor's Note: Compounding pharmacists can assist by preparing more dilute preparations where larger volumes can be measured more accurately.)
http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=649085
Pharmacy Blows Whistle on Fraud
One of the most successful whistleblowers of recent years has been a pharmacy. The pharmacy is Ven-A-Care, a Florida pharmacy that appears to have whistleblowing as its primary business, not a sideline. The majority of its revenue is reported to come from PHARMA settlements; amounting to about $168 million last December alone.
The pharmacy investigates drug-pricing data, looking for major discrepancies between the prices it paid for drugs with the prices drugmakers report to the federal government. When large differences are found, it sues. Since 2000, the pharmacy has won 18 fraud suits, and its share of those settlements amounted to about $380 million. The individual states and the federal government received $2.2 billion.
The deputy attorney general for California says that Ven-A-Care has played a key role and possibly the predominant role in alerting state and federal governments about fraud. The article also states that the government recaptured a record $4 billion last year from pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, and other providers of care that defrauded federal healthcare programs.
http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/tattletale-pharmacy-blows-whistle-pharma-fraud/2011-01-25?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
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