INFO - Pharmaceutical Firms Offer One-Stop Access for Info on Drug Assistance Programs

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Via a tip from Lori:

Pharmaceutical Firms Offer One-Stop Access for Info on Drug Assistance

Programs

By Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) Apr 05 - A coalition of drug companies and health care

providers on Tuesday launched a new effort to make it easier for poor

patients to find information on private and public programs offering free

medications.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), an

industry group, said the new outreach campaign includes three national call

centers and a new Web site to help consolidate details on about 275

assistance programs.

While drug manufacturers offer 150 programs to give away medicines,

according to PhRMA, some patient advocates and others critics have

complained the process involves lengthy applications and complicated income

assessments.

, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, which is

part of the coalition, said many low-income patients do without drugs when

they cannot afford them or figure out how to get them through aid.

" It's been so onerous for patients that most of them have thrown up their

hands, " she said.

A study published last week showed drug assistance programs are too

time-consuming and complex for some health clinics that serve mostly

low-income patients.

Of 214 clinics in five states surveyed in 2002, 48 said they did not

participate, according to the survey funded by the philanthropic California

Health Care Foundation and published in the American Journal of

Health-System Pharmacy.

It also found drug donation programs consumed an average of 12 hours of

pharmacist time and 99 hours of other staff time per month.

PhRMA has said it encourages drug makers to simplify the process, but each

company runs its own program and decides who qualifies and how much to

donate. Last year, the industry gave away 22 million free prescriptions

worth $4.7 billion, PhRMA President Tauzin said.

Charitable programs from GlaxoKline Plc, Novartis AG and

Schering-Plough Corp. were the least likely to be used, while others offered

by Pfizer Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Merck & Co. Inc. were used more

frequently, the health clinic survey also showed.

The new centralized information will help cut the time it takes for doctors,

patients and others to track down programs that could help, said the new

coalition, called Partnership for Prescription Assistance.

While the new advertising effort may increase demand for free medicines, it

is in the drug makers' interest to help poorer patients, especially for the

marketplace.

The groups are spending $10 million in national television and newspaper

advertisements starting this week to direct people to the site,

www.pparx.org, and call centers.

" It's in everybody's interest in this country for us to make sure nobody is

left out of a free market delivery system... if the government is not going

to end up taking it over some day, " Tauzin said.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/502501?src=mp

Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org