Rxchange survey provides shocking evidence of
massive UK prescription drug waste
Government proposals will make this worse
February 2009
Preliminary poll results from Rxchange, the online pharmacy stock exchange, indicate that UK pharmacies are throwing away 4% of their ethical (prescription) stock because it goes out of date before it can be used. With government figures indicating that the combined value of prescription medicines dispensed in UK community pharmacies is £10.2B pa. this means at least £400M of prescription medicines are written off each year.
One small relief is that under certain conditions pharmacies can legitimately resell stock to another pharmacy that may need it, as long as the stock is still in date. This is an ideal method to reduce waste, redistribute existing stock and to locate “hard-to-obtain” items - easing supply difficulties for patients. However, this lifeline may soon be thrown away.
New proposals from the MHRA (The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) could jeopardise this long established facility, at a time when pharmacies are reeling from the affects of government clawbacks, Category M and increasing difficulties obtaining operating finance in the ‘credit crunch’.
The MHRA has asked for feedback on a range of proposals that affect community and hospital pharmacies. These seek to regulate inter-pharmacy business more closely, removing existing exemptions and tightening the availability of Wholesale Dealers Licences (WDL). The MHRA says their proposals are intended to reduce the risk of counterfeit stock entering the supply chain, although there is no suggestion that it has previously entered via this route.
As pharmacies are prevented from claiming any reimbursement for stock not dispensed, they must cover any loss themselves. The proposed changes will therefore result in higher waste figures and patient healthcare will potentially suffer as pharmacies seek to limit their losses by reducing their stockholding.
Co-founder of Rxchange, Andrew Claridge said: “We fully endorse efforts to prevent counterfeit stock entering the supply chain, however, we must ensure that any new regulations balance the commercial impact on pharmacies against the likelihood of reducing counterfeit stock.
Pharmacist - Atul Patel - commented: “The proposals will affect us financially and therefore put at risk access to pharmaceutical services that the community has come to rely on. Any new regulations must have a "NIL detriment" effect on the current services available. The current MHRA proposals will put the viability of current small independent pharmacies at risk.”
Rxchange invites all those who wish to contribute to this discussion to visit: http://www.rxchange.co.uk/waste
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Comments
10 Comments
MR J C PATEL (18 February 2009, 11:44:22 PM)
The inter-pharmacy trade at Rxchange allows me to sell off drugs which would eventually have gone out of date. Out of date drugs are destroyed by incineration adding to pollution and contributing towards global warming, albeit, in a small way.
M Solanki (25 February 2009, 09:24:46 AM)
RxChange is a great way of doing stock swap that we have always done amongst local colleagues for decades, only difference being we can do the same with colleagues from a much wider area and with ease of paper work. It is a fantastic platform based not only on trust but declarations made by individual pharmacists who are accountable to offering for sale only products which have been stored correctly and are in good condition. To stop this will create more waste which goes against the ethos of saving wastage.
Andrew Rxchange (25 February 2009, 06:11:21 PM)
I originally added this to the MHRA discussion but thought it would be useful here to show how the figures are calculated...
Using publicly available figures for the cost of medicines to the NHS for 2006/2007, we see:
£8.1B Primary care prescriptions dispensed in the community England
£0.2B Hospital prescribed, dispensed in community England
£0.6B Prescriptions dispensed in the community in Wales
£0.9B Prescriptions dispensed in the community in Scotland
£0.4B Prescriptions dispensed in the community in Northern Ireland
Total prescriptions dispensed in the community £10.2B
Therefore assuming total value of £10B
Ethical waste @ 4% = £400,000,000 (£0.4B);
There are 11,000 Pharmacies in England and Wales
There are 1,150 pharmacies in Scotland
There are 514 pharmacies in Northern Ireland
Total UK pharmacies = 12,600 (approx)
Therefore £400,000,000/12,600 pharmacies = £31.7K average cost of ethical waste per UK pharmacy. Therefore a chain of 8 pharmacies would write-off £0.25M.
These figures to not consider waste from OTC, private scripts, dentists, vets, wholesalers or from the additional £2.8B dispensed by hospital pharmacies. Neither do they consider the financial and environmental costs of transporting and destroying the waste.
Incidentally, £400M was also the figure for the Oct 07 Cat M clawback.
Gordon Dykes (05 March 2009, 04:32:55 PM)
RxChange has allowed us to recoup some money we would otherwise have lost. We try to keep regular items in stock even if it is only for one patient. However, if they cease to be prescribed these items we are often stuck with the product till it passes it's expiry date.
Asif Patel (18 March 2009, 01:24:23 PM)
Nonsense research such as this does more harm than good. The calculations are little advanced from those seen on the back of a cigarette packet.
Concentrate on the excellent service - not so called research
Nader Siabi (19 April 2009, 08:58:17 PM)
So far I have sold more than £1000 stock which otherwise would have expired. Mostly expensive items, otherwise in future I will not risk ordering for fear of loss/expiry. If the inter-trade between pharmacy closes, I will not have any option other than deprive patients access to expensive medicines on time. I currently have well over £2000 of short-dated item listed but so far not sold. Mostly very expensive branded items.
Bindu Bhatt (12 June 2010, 11:20:40 AM)
Approx 5%
n (13 September 2010, 05:41:46 PM)
kry
m (17 November 2010, 01:47:27 PM)
n
a (18 December 2010, 04:20:26 PM)
Hi
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