Prescription drug regs-don't get sick

[gazeboman]

A highly placed friend in the prescription drug industry sent this to me. She said, although well meaning the effect of these new regs will make it difficult if not impossible for tourists to get prescriptions for many drugs in the bahamas.


AN S01009912 20080926.
OC PARAGRAPH.
TI Bahamas proposes laws to control imports and ease access (F).
SO Scrip.
DT 20080926.
TX
Two new pieces of proposed legislation are to be presented to the
Bahamian Parliament, in a bid to help prevent the importation of
illegitimate products and to make access to affordable drugs easier.

The Pharmacy Act aims to provide regulation in the practice of
pharmacy, as well as control the registration and licensing of
persons qualified to practice. It would also regulate pharmacy
practice and conduct, covering areas such as manufacturing,
dispensing, clinical applications and distribution.

Additionally, the act could lead to the establishment of a Bahamas
Pharmacy Council, which would be responsible for regulating the
pharmacy profession and hold powers to modify and make regulations,
the health minister, Dr Hubert Minnis, said.

A second piece of legislation would help establish a programme for
the supply of drugs at government-owned facilities at an "economic
cost" to patients suffering from certain chronic diseases. The act
would establish a prescription drug plan to improve access to cost-
effective drugs for certain diseases, and help reduce patients'
financial burden when purchasing prescription drugs for these
conditions.

Additionally, a drug fund would be controlled and managed by the
National Insurance Board and cover specific illnesses, ensuring
medication was available to patients who fell within these
categories. Patients would also be able to receive their medications
at any participating private pharmacy, as opposed to waiting for long
periods at hospitals and government clinics. Senior citizens would
receive medications free of charge.

Dr Minnis described the Bahamian pharmaceutical profession as "rife"
with illegitimate individuals affecting sales, distribution and
manufacturing, and said the new acts were an effort to protect the
Bahamian public by ensuring that appropriate guidelines, policies and
legislation were in place. SCRIP - World Pharmaceutical News -
www.scrippharma.com FILED 26 September 2008 COPYRIGHT Informa UK Ltd
2008.

[DrRalph]

I don't think this is a problem, we have many of the same regs here in Florida, and also at the federal level.

Most tourists travel with their own medications, and by law each med is supposed to be in its own labeled container. Many of us throw all of our pills in a baggie or a "day-by-day" container, and that is actually illegal, although I have never heard of anyone being busted for it.

If you develope an illness in the Bahamas, go to a legitimate provider, and you are given a prescription or legal medications, there should be no difficulties.

We all get spam from goofballs offering to send us all kinds of drugs over the Internet: Xanax, ED drugs, etc., and it looks like the Bahamas is trying to crack down on that and other illicit practices.

[PELLUCID]

A key strategy in fighting AIDS, hepatitis, malaria, and other chronic diseases in the 3rd world is to persuade drug companies to provide advanced medications at low cost. The drug companies are usually happy to do this, because their main costs are R&D rather than production. But it only works if the drug companies can be assured that the low-priced drugs won't filter back into the 1st world through unauthorized channels. Otherwise, they will be unable to recoup their R&D costs.

The Bahamas is in an unusual spot. On the one hand, many citizens have first-world incomes. On the other, there is widespread poverty along with high rates of AIDS in certain areas. Clearly the Bahamas needs to participate in these low-cost medication programs if it is to make progress in improving the health of its less fortunate inhabitants.

I think that the Bahamas is implementing sound policy in this regard. Yes, tourists won't be able to come to the Bahamas to get presription drugs intended for the poor at discount prices. But nothing in the proposed policy seems to prohibit them being sold to visitors at US prices.