Volume 2 Issue 5

Focus On:

Renee Lupo, R.Ph., FACA

Renee Lupo, Wedgewood's lead veterinary technical services pharmacist, exemplifies Wedgewood's commitment to professionalism and continuing education in compounding pharmacy. In April, Renee was elected by the board of directors of the American College of Apothecaries as a full Fellow, a high honor reserved for owners, partners, stockholders or managers who make policy decisions in a professional pharmacy practice. ACA Fellows are required to demonstrate compliance with the College's stringent Level I standards of practice. In April, Renee also received the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists' Certificate of Achievement in Pharmacotherapy for exotic pets. She previously received similar certificates for advanced canine and advance feline therapeutics.

News and Notes:

Saratoga Case Dismissed

The United States District Court in the Northern District of New York has dismissed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Wedgewood Pharmacy filed in September 2005. A group of Saratoga County thoroughbred racehorse owners who claimed that a compounded medication provided by Wedgewood was “improperly” compounded filed the suit. The Court dismissed the case “with prejudice” relying on “testing confirming [that] the [Wedgewood] product was formulated to the labeled potency as advertised.” The legal term “with prejudice” means that a judge has made a final and binding decision and that the plaintiffs may not pursue the matter further in any court. In common use, the term means “thrown out of court for a good reason.”

Free Shipping for Online Orders is Extended Through May

My Wedgewood Pharmacy is your new tool to control costs and to improve the efficiency of your practice. Now you can order office-delivered custom medications, search for preparations and prices and review your practice's order history 24 hours a day. We want you to see just how useful this new tool can be so there's no shipping charge for orders you place online through midnight Eastern Time on May 31, 2007.

As always, Wedgewood is committed to the highest standards of quality and ethics, so access to this site is restricted to prescribers whose licenses have been verified and who have received a secure user ID and password from Wedgewood. Call 888.910.2211 toll-free to obtain your access credentials.

In the News

Explore the Brain Like Never Before: FREE

BrainMaps.org, a free service provided by researchers from the University of California, Davis, Center for Neuroscience, is an interactive zoom-able high-resolution digital brain- atlas and virtual microscope that is based on more 15 million megapixels of scanned images of serial sections of both primate and non-primate brains. It's integrated with a high-speed database for querying and retrieving data about brain structure and function. The site also offers a suite of free software tools for analyzing its data.

Clear Communication Improves Compliance

A nationwide study conducted by a veterinary task force comprising more than a dozen companies and associations showed that 71% of pet owners follow their vet's recommendations when they receive a thorough explanation of the treatment plan. The same is true when owners feel their vet has done an excellent job interacting with their pet. The study was conducted by BNResearch, which expects to issue a detailed report soon.

Sites You Should See

Veterinary and human medical practices have many things in common, including the need to develop strategies to avoid medication errors. MedScape: Business of Medicine, a no-cost service from WebMD, provides clinical information to improve patient care and other information to make the clinician's task of information gathering simpler, more fruitful and less time-consuming. Registration is free. You'll find great articles such as Simple strategies to avoid medication errors. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices also provides useful tools for healthcare professionals, including this list of error-prone abbreviations, symbols and dose designations.

Did You Know

How Beyond-Use Dates for Compounded Preparations are Determined

The shorter beyond-use dates of compounded medications, compared to manufactured drugs, require tighter inventory controls for practices that dispense from their practices. Manufactured drugs are subjected to validated stability tests that subject each batch of manufactured drug to stressors such as heat and moisture. Even “accelerated stability studies” cost from $10,000 - $25,000 per test. Adding that cost to the price of each prescription filled by a compounding pharmacy is obviously not possible. So compounding pharmacists make professional judgments based on USP guidelines and other information about the components of a compounded preparation. With the exception of powdered products, most compounded medications have a labeled shelf life of six months. Taking advantage of Wedgewood's rapid turnaround times (95% of all prescriptions ship on the same day they are ordered) and direct-to-patient drop shipping are great inventory management tools. Our systems are programmed to prevent patients from receiving any cost information.

What's your Story?

Do you have an interesting story about the use of compounded medications in your practice? If you do, let us know! If we publish your story in an upcoming edition of this newsletter, we'll donate $100 in your name to any equine-related non-profit program you designate. If you'd like to submit or discuss a story, please send an E-mail to hflitcraft@WedgewoodPharmacy.com.

This newsletter is published every month by Wedgewood Pharmacy, one of the nation's largest veterinary compounding pharmacies.

405 Heron Drive Suite 200
Swedesboro, NJ 08085-1749
1-888-678-1967

Copyright © 2007 Wedgewood Village Pharmacy, Inc. All rights reserved.

Upcoming Events

May 8 – 10: American Boarding Kennels Association Region 2 Spring Meeting, Resorts International Hotel, Atlantic City

May 10 – 12: American Boarding Kennels Association Region 7 Spring Meeting, Scottsdale.

May 15 – 18: American Boarding Kennels Association Region 4 Spring Meeting, Louisville

May 16: American Boarding Kennels Association Region Region 1 Spring Meeting, Atlantic Oaks Resort, Bar Harbor

May 20 – 25: NAVC Institute, Orlando. Single-discipline, small, interactive classes, hands-on laboratories. Five days of total immersion, in-residence continuing education. 2007 tentative NAVC institute program: Dentistry, Dermatology, Leadership, Ultrasound, Small Animal Surgery, Orthopedics, Applied Clinical Behavioral Medicine, Feline Medicine, Pain Management, Emergency & Critical Care Medicine, Technician Behavior, Technician Dentistry

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Trilostane is a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme 3-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase. It works at the level of the adrenal gland to block the normal steroidogenisis pathway of pregnenolone to progesterone to cortisol, aldosterone, and androstenedione. Pituitary dependant hyperadrenocorticism (PDH) is the most common cause of Cushing's disease seen in dogs. It is a disease of middle aged dogs with some breeds having a higher predilection (poodles, dachshunds, Boston terriers, and boxers). Both genders are affected.

Historically mitotane has been the treatment of choice for PDH. Mitotane causes selective necrosis of the zona fasiculata and the zona reticularis of the adrenal cortex. An induction period and a maintenance protocol are required with the use of mitotane and there is a relatively high incidence of side effects. Trilostane appears to have fewer and less severe side effects. Read the entire monograph >>