What can a pharmacist do?

Pharmacist can help to ensure that unused medications are returned to the pharmacy and dispose them appropriately through hazardous waste companies. By educating patients on proper disposal, pharmacists contribute significantly to preventing medications from entering the water supply.

By discouraging inappropriate use and overuse of prescription, nonprescription and alternative medications, pharmacists can help decrease the amount of medication that is purchased and eventually discarded, or unnecessarily ingested and excreted into our environment. For example, pharmacists may counsel patients to select single-entity cough and cold preparations that target their specific symptom(s), as opposed to multi-ingredient product that contain ingredients they do not need. With new prescription, it makes sense to limit initial prescription size and determine patient tolerability, thereby minimizing drug wastage.

According to two recent reports, generic drugs are gaining an increasingly strong share of drug expenditures in Canada. According to figures released in May by the CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information) Canadians spent a total of $26.9 billion on drugs in 2007, with prescription drugs representing 84% of that figure.
CIHI report showed that the annual growth rate for prescribed drug spending in 2007 (7.5%) was lower than the 10.5 % average annual grwoth rate between 1997 and 2006.

Generic drugs currently comprise 49% of all prescriptons in Canada. According to IMS Health, the average cost of a brand name prescription was $64.19 in 2007, compared to an average cost of $26.07 for a generic prescription.

News from Canadian press:

Ontario patients could soon get drug prescriptions from their local pharmacists as the governing Liberals look to join other provinces and expand the prescribing powers of pharmacist, nurses and other non-physicians.

The Ministry of Health is commissioning a study which would examine whether those who have prescription authority now, like midwives, optometrists and nurse practitioners- should be able to prescribe more classes of drugs.

The study would also look at the role of pharmacists and whether they could ease pressure on the health-care system by writing prescriptions.

Ontario’s interest comes after Alberta expanded the role of its pharmacists last year, allowing them to prescribe some drugs, give drug refills and inject vaccinations.

Next to cardiac abnormalities, neural tube defects are the second most common major congenital disorders. Spina bifida, a type of NTD, is the most common cause of congenital ambulatory disability.

Awareness about the importance of preventing NTD through sufficient folic acid intake during the periconception period has grown over the past 15 years.

Fortunately, the number of infants born with a NTD has declined. In 1997, 7.5 per 10,000 births in Canada were affected by a NTD (approximately 260 births/year), compared to 11.6 per 10,000 births in 1989. This decrease may be explained by an increase in folic acid supplementation and an improvement in prenatal diagnosis of NTDs, with possible pregnancy termination. Some studies also indicate that perinatal folic acid supplementation decreases the occurrence of defects of the heart, urinary tract, limbs, and possibly orofacial clefts.

From April 2008 edition of a Canadian Pharmacists Journal (CPJ).

Cubicin (daptomycin for injection by Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. and distributed by Oryx Pharmaceuticals Inc.) is an antibacterial agent approved for the treatment of adults with 1. Complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSSI) caused by susceptible strains of gram-positive microorganisms such as Staphylococcus aureus, S. Pyogenes and S. agalactiae and 2) bacteremia caused by S. aureus, including right-sided infective endocarditis affecting a native valve.

‘Cymbalta’ (duloxetine hydrochloride by eli Lilly Canada Inc.) is selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) approved for the treatment of painful diabetic peripheral neurophathy.

‘Frova’ (frovatriptan succinate by TEVA Neuroscience) is for the acute treatment of migraine attacks with or without aura in aults.

Article from ‘The Star’ news,

Canada’s ban on direct-to-consumer drug advertising probably saved Canadians with high cholesterol and their drug plans $150 million in 2006 alone.

A new study comparing U.S. and Canada sales patterns of a controversial cholesterol lowering drug show the dramatic savings.

Canadian sales of the drug Ezetrol (ezetimibe) were four times lower than those rung up south of the border, where the drug’s manufacturers spent $200 million (U.S) advertising the drug to consumers in 2007.

Sales of ezetimibe, which is sold in the U.S. as ‘Zetia’ or combined with a ‘statin’ drug as ‘Vytorin’ are expected to drop after releasing the trial results showing the drug failed to slow atherosclerosis, the clogging of the arteries with fatty deposits.

University of Waterloo is creating a new school of Pharmacy in Downtown Kitchener. The School pf Pharmacy, which is the first new school in Canada in 20 years, will fill the urgent demand for more pharmacists in Ontario. This innovative project is the result of a unique partnership between the City if Kitchener and University of Waterloo.

The first undergraduate class of 120 students started in January 2008. This Baccalaureate in pharmacy program at the School of Pharmacy, has been granted qualifying accreditation Status by the “Canadian council for Accreditation of Pharmacy programs”
At full operation, the school is expected to have 480 undergrads, 70 graduate students, 30 faculty members, and 20 staff. Special feature is that this program is a co-op program: the first in Canada. All students will alternate work terms with academic study, taking their classroom experience to the workforce, and bringing work experience back to class.

In January, 2007, the Ontario government in collaboration with Cancer Care Ontario announced the launch of a new province-wide colorectal cancer screening program.

This program, first of its kind in Canada, will provide regular colorectal cancer screening to all asymptomatic Ontarians 50 years and older. The program goals are to reduce the mortality from colorectal cancer through an organized screening program and to improve the capacity for primary care to participate in comprehensive colorectal cancer screening. ColonCancerCheck will do this by expanding access to screening, supporting physicians and other health care professionals to screen patients, and educating the public about colorectal cancer screening.

Acne vulgaris is a common inflammatory disorder of the pilo-sebaceous follicles. It is a multifactorial disease and its pathophysiology centers on the interplay of follicular hyperkeratinization, colonization with Propionibacterium acnes (PA), increased sebum production, and inflammation. This disease is occurring mainly in adolescence. Although the peak of prevalence is around the 17th year of life, acne lesions can appear earlier and are not uncommonly observed in the age group ranging from 12 to 14 years.

Antibiotic therapy has long been found useful in the management of moderate-to-severe acne vulgaris. Mechanisms of action include suppressing growth of PA, reducing the production of inflammatory mediators, and acting in immunomodulation. Commonly prescribed antibiotics include tetracyclines, doxycycline, minocycline and erythromycin.

Based on an article published in March edition of Medscape Journal:

VITAMIN C