Thursday, December 3, 2009

Apotex Shortages Explained

Good Morning.

I woke up this morning to rain. Not snow. I guess that's okay for this time of year.

First guy that walks into the pharmacy was looking for his Oxycontin. Sorry, still too early. And tomorrow will also be too early. See you in a few weeks.

Funny how when there was a shortage of pharmacists a few years ago, the media didn't cover it like they cover the doctor shortage, eh?

Seriously, I know we're not preceived as more important, but why not at least give us some recognition for what we do for the public.

In other news, I spoke with a rep from Apotex yesterday about all the drug shortages that pharmacies all over Ontario (and probably Canada) have been experiencing. Here is basically what he told me: Apotex applied for approval of it's Canadian facilities to manufacture drugs for sale in the US. The FDA told them to change a bunch of things to get up to their standards (uh, oh). So then the rest of the world decided we want to do what the FDA does. Now, Apotex is going through major process, SOP, and QA adjustments in all of it's plants. For example, they found traces of penicillin in one of the plants that isn't supposed to have penicillin in it (big uh, oh.) And so during this whole process, they have shut down or slowed down manufacturing certain lines or drugs or whatever. End result, pharmacies can't get product they rely on, and patients are suffering.

That's all I've got on that. I guess this is good for all the other generic companies.

What else is happening in the world of health today? There's been some talk about increased incidence of infection in ICU's. They're saying infections in half of the world's ICUs!!? I have a good friend who is an ICU doctor. His nick name in Univeristy was "filthy". Coincidence?

I also got some good gossip on where various people in the industry are today (ie, job changes, etc). But, I'll save that for another day.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Wed. Dec. 2nd, 2009

I usually have amazing things to say or write about with respect to the pharmacy world and industry. The problem is, I'm usually in over my head behind the counter with multiple people waiting, the phone ringing, and not a second to logon to my blog and tell the world about my brilliant idea or thoughts.

I have to wait until much later in the day when I've separated myself from the dispensary. Unfotunately, those spontatneous moments of passionate thoughts about something related to pharmacy, are long gone by about now.

All day long, I come across interesting current events, breaking news, funny stories, weird patient interactions, and moments of epiphany. My other issue, is which of these things are appropriate for this type of forum? Do I want to tell you about the crazy corn factory worker who burned his arm then put scotch tape over the burn because he truly thought that was the right thing to do? Or do I want to tell you about the new study that showed most hand sanitizers aren't going to kill 99.9% of germ like they advertise? Or do I want to discuss that for all the relief pharmacy work I've done, I could have spent most of that time planning on opening my own pharmacy and worked for myself all this time?

OR do I want to talk about whatever people will read about?

Ya, I think that's the best option because without the reader, a blog is nonexistent.

So, tell me. Until then, I will write about whatever and see what comes out of it.