PHARMACIST STEVE

Opioid bill includes pill buy-back language

http://www.ack.net/Opioidbill100515.html

(Oct. 5, 2015) In legislation passed Thursday by the Massachusetts Senate to fight drug abuse, language sponsored by Cape and Islands Sen. Dan Wolf (D-Harwich) would establish a program to require pharmaceutical companies to buy back prescription drugs already distributed but not used by patients, whether those pills are returned voluntarily or confiscated by law enforcement.

 Proceeds from the required buy-back would fund drug treatment and prevention.

 “Pharmaceutical companies must join us all in fighting drug abuse, and this is an important way for them to do that,” Wolf said. “Companies that create these beneficial compounds certainly do not want to profit from abuse and tragedy. So when painkilling pills are over-prescribed, or stolen for re-sale, surely pharmaceutical companies should welcome this opportunity to compensate our communities and create a strong incentive to reduce excess supply.”

 “What this amendment does is recognize that for an industry approaching $15 billion, only about 58 percent of the drugs are actually used for the purpose of their manufacture,” Wolf said on the Senate floor. “Fully 42 percent of these drugs are not being used for the purposes and individuals they were made for. The others are hitting the streets, or discarded.

 “We want to find a mechanism to submit those drugs back to the pharmaceutical companies, and have them return revenue made in their sale. It is a fair, just, balanced way to approach this. And it would create funding for prevention and treatment.”

 The legislation instructs pharmaceutical companies, working with the Massachusetts Department of Health, to create a program and mechanism to assess a price per pill recovered, levy a fee for each pill to the manufacturer, and put those fees into a fund to support public programs to fight drug abuse. Such a plan must be presented to the Legislature by January 2018.

 “Those who create and profit from these pharmaceuticals must join physicians who prescribe as well as patients who consume to take some of the responsibility for this plague,” Wolf said. “This is one way to do that, one more proactive strategy to end drug abuse.”

 Other key provisions of the legislation include:

 • Add screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment to the list of screenings schools conduct to identify youth at risk.

 • Increase access to specialists who specialize in pain management and treatment by creating a program for remote consulting for physicians.

 • Protect “Good Samaritans” who administer naloxone to an overdose victim from civil liability.

 • Require that Gabapentin, a drug that enhances the effect of opiate misuse, be reported and monitored.

 • Require that all schedule II opiate prescriptions be written in an “up to” quantity, allowing patients to voluntarily reduce the amount dispensed, and require prescribers to educate patients about their right to receive lesser quantities.

 • Allow patients to voluntarily record a non-opiate directive, a binding instruction to prescribers that the patient should not be offered an opiate.

 The legislation now moves to the House for consideration.

Filed under: General Problems