Change.org Petition Update (JUL 31, 2022) — Hi Everyone,
I've seen more pictures this summer of melted medication bottles, gel capsules melted and clumped together, and crumbling tablets as the issues continue and as many are forced to the insurance companies' owned mail order pharmacies.
No one is warned that the temperatures of mail order pharmacies are left unregulated by the FDA or State Boards of Pharmacy. Parents and patients like my son deserved to be warned.
How did America allow this issue to go unregulated for so long?
Upon researching the issues from 20 years ago, the answer is found. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) is the lobbyist association for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). By the way, Optum RX, CVS Caremark, and Express Scripts are PBMs. PCMA was questioned about the issue in many reports. . As patients claimed to receive medications that were not working, PCMA continued to claim to reporters that they'd never/rarely heard those complaints and continued to make the statements that they make today as patients and pharmacists complain.
Even after a study in 1997 showed that packages are subjected to extreme temperatures of up to 170° F during transport in non-airconditioned trucks and mailboxes, PCMA and the Board of Pharmacy determined that not enough was known about the degradation of medications that were stored at extreme temperatures. Although, there is good information dated back to the 1950s - 1990s showing that medications can become toxic or less potent when exposed to extreme temperatures. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) and PCMA even went so far as to claim that although the temperatures of the packages showed that they were exposed to excessive temperatures of up to 170° F, no medications were shipped. They incorrectly determined that the study may not be useful for understanding the effects of medications by mail and took no further action. Most medications are shipped in flimsy bags. If you're screaming with me "What?!" and cringing with the feeling of injustice while reading that with me, I'm not done yet.
Pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs also found their way onto State Boards. During a 1987 US Senate Hearing, these State Boards also claimed that the mail order pharmacies had to comply with the same rules as brick and mortar pharmacies, but that wasn't true. Unlike brick and mortar stores, mail order pharmacies face no consequences for placing medications in unsafe temperatures.
See, local pharmacies are fined when medications are improperly stored. I've seen fines for medications being stored only a few degrees outside of the 77° F room temperature limit or for a refrigerator being off a couple of degrees.
Also, It is not required that complaints of temperature issues are reported, so it's poorly tracked. When a patient's condition worsens, the last thought to a patient or a physician may be the issues with temperatures. We will never know how many people have been harmed. No one warned us.
With that, I leave with this request.
Speak to your legislators.
Continue to share your stories and photos loretta@uniteforsafemeds.com
We could use help getting media attention on this issue. Do you have media contacts? Would you help by reaching out to the Media to ask them to report on this issue to help put pressure on the NABP to do more as I'll be speaking on this issue in front of the NABP on August the 30th in Oklahoma City?
These companies are now the wealthiest corporations in our nation. This is truly David and Goliath's issue.
Thank you for your support,
Loretta Boesing