Ad slams effort to exempt drugstore pharmacies from performance standards

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) released a new ad campaign that highlights how specialty physicians believe that not all pharmacies are capable of dispensing and administering specialty medication to treat chronic conditions.

The ad, “I’m Not Willing to Send my Patients to Just Any Pharmacy” can be viewed on the PCMA website: www.pcmanet.org. The ad said specialty medications aren’t like other drugs and must be handled carefully, especially those that treat serious conditions such as cancer or multiple sclerosis.

The ad persuades doctors and patients to vote "no" on S.3995-B, a New York measure that would exempt drugstores from performance standards and, a recent study said, increase drug costs by over $6 billion.

"Ensuring patient safety for those taking complex medicines for conditions like cancer, multiple sclerosis  and other illnesses should be a top priority," PCMA President and CEO Mark Merritt said. "It's wrong to make employers contract with drugstores that may not be qualified to dispense these complex specialty medicines."

In addition to the study that claimed increased drug costs would come with the proposed legislation, a new report by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) said federal and state lawmakers should avoid undermining specialty pharmacies' expertise in dispensing costly medications.