The Dose, Issue 02

Happy Tuesday, readers! We're back with a new issue of The Dose by Drug Topics .

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NCPA 2024 Annual Meeting and Expo

Last weekend, our editors jetted off to Columbus, Ohio, for the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) 2024 Annual Meeting and Expo. The theme of this year's meeting—Growth. Performance. Success.—was supported by 4 days of programming, with sessions covering everything from surviving DEA audits to implementing workflows for hormonal contraceptive prescribing.

Fresh off his 2-part vaccine update session, David Ha , PharmD, BCIDP, joined us to discuss the importance of vaccination programs in independent pharmacies. “Pharmacies are?the?place to get your vaccines,” said Ha. “That is being widely recognized by patients, widely recognized by providers, [and even by] public health departments.”

“I would highly encourage [pharmacists]—I would even venture as far as to say it’s now our responsibility as community pharmacists—to provide [vaccination] services broadly to patients,” Ha said. “Primary providers are not doing it as much as they were in the past and are deferring to community pharmacies. I would say it is the responsibility of community pharmacists to step up their vaccination programs to focus not just on seasonal vaccines…but also on nonseasonal vaccines…There is a huge need in the community for these vaccines.”

As expected, the fight for PBM reform was also on the agenda. Panelists Anne Cassity , Jack Mozloom , Carter High, PharmD, RPh , and Bil Schmidtknecht provided updates on NCPA's Finish the Fight campaign, launched earlier this year with the goal of getting PBM reform across the finish line.

As Cassity explained, "Pharmacists are wonderful. They’re calling their members of Congress, they’re calling their state legislators. They’re talking to their communities, they’re talking to employers.” But dollar for dollar, “we’re not going to win the fight” against PBMs. “This isn’t meant to be discouraging… We spend money on lobbying, we do other things. But we’re fighting against 3 Fortune 16 companies and 2 very big trade associations.”

So, what's an independent pharmacist to do?

For Carter High, PharmD, RPh , getting patients involved in the fight against PBMs has been crucial. “Any time a conversation would come up about high drug prices, I’d say, ‘Here, scan this,'" he explained.

“We need every pharmacy—every independent pharmacy in America—to get just 10 patients to engage,” said Anne Cassity . The math is simple: 50,000 patients have already contacted their Congressional representatives. If 5000 stores each got 10 new patients to reach out, that would double the number of messages to 100,000. “Think about 19,000 independent pharmacies,” she said. “That’s tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, five hundred thousand messages. These are all voters, and that’s what legislators listen to and respond to.”

American Pharmacists Month

During October, the Drug Topics team interviewed 8 incredible pharmacists who are working tirelessly to make a positive impact in their patients' lives. We want to extend our thanks to Benjamin Jolley , TaQuina Warren , Adam J. James, James Rider, Madison Irwin , Nina Vadiei , Chelsee Jensen, PharmD, BCPS , and Cassandra Esperant PharmD, AAHIVP for taking the time to chat with us last month.

Check out our American Pharmacists Month page for all of these interviews and more.

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