Volume 2 Issue 5

Focus On:

Renee Lupo, R.Ph., FACA

Renee Lupo, Lead Veterinary Technical Services Pharmacist for Wedgewood Pharmacy 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.”

Wedgewood Has Pergolide Mesylate

On March 29, the FDA announced that manufacturers of pergolide drug products, which are used to treat Parkinson's disease in humans, will voluntarily remove these drugs from the market because of the risk of serious damage to patients' heart valves. There's no better example of the critical need for compounding pharmacies, which can continue to supply equine veterinarians with compounded versions of the preparation for the treatment of Cushing's Disease. The preparation is available in Wedgewood's new dosing form, Gourmeds™ (see this month's featured preparation) and in suspension for custom dosages. For more information, visit www.pergolidealert.com.

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.

Signature Series

Ask us how we can help you brand your practice with custom labeling. Click HERE to contact us and find out more!

Featured Preparation

Pergolide Gourmeds

Gourmeds™ is our latest dosage form. This new service provides the compounded preparations you prescribe most frequently in chewable, naturally flavored tablets that are easy to administer — and tasty as a treat. We recognize that compliance is often difficult for you and your patients' owners to obtain. Medicating a horse using Gourmeds™ is a simple one-step process that does not involve buying or storing any other flavoring product to improve compliance. Get a free un-medicated sample of Gourmeds.

Click here to check pricing

Featured Drug Monograph

Pergolide for Veterinary Use

Pergolide is a human drug used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Pergolide is the drug of choice for the treatment of pituitary pars intermedia hyperplasia or Equine Cushing's Syndrome (ECS) in horses. Pergolide works by binding with drug receptors in the brain that control the production of dopamine. Cyproheptadine is another drug that has been used in the treatment of ECS although recent work indicates that it is not very effective, and that pergolide is clearly the treatment of choice. For many years, pituitary pars intermedia hyperplasia was called pituitary adenoma. In most cases, this commonly seen condition of older horses and ponies is caused by hyperplasia or hypertrophy of the pars intermedia rather than tumor. Although the hyperplasia may eventually progress to adenoma formation, that is considerably less common. The average age of horses diagnosed with ECS is 20 (range 7-42). Ponies may be more commonly affected. Pituitary pars intermedia hyperplasia is a medical problem that is managed, not cured. Animals that are being treated are usually on medication for the rest of their lives. Read the entire monograph >>

From the Capitols:

Effort to Expand FDA Regulation of Compounding Stalls

Excerpted from the April 26, 2007 Congressional Quarterly

A congressional effort to expand FDA's regulation of pharmacies that customize drugs is stalled as one of the two Republican backers of a draft discussion bill has distanced himself from the proposal. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Kennedy and Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan., drafted a bill to allow FDA strict authority over what are known as compounding pharmacies, but sources say Roberts has clarified he does not explicitly support the proposal even though the draft went out with his name on it.

Major pharmacy associations and compounding pharmacy groups, as well as some patient groups, have raised concerns that the proposal would eliminate patient access to crucial medications. The draft proposal that began circulating earlier this year would threaten patient access to compounded medications, Jim Rock, a lobbyist for compounding proponents, said.

In a letter last month to senators, nine pharmacy groups, including the American Pharmacists Association, the National Community Pharmacists Association and the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists said provisions to allow FDA to determine when compounding is appropriate and what drugs can be customized would have a chilling effect.

Take Action to Protect Your Access to Compounded Medications!

Your right to prescribe compounded medications is under unprecedented attack by the FDA, despite many court rulings, including from the U.S. Supreme Court, affirming the critical need for compounded medications in veterinary practice. Please consider sending a letter to your Congressional delegation about the importance of compounded medications and their impact on your patients' health. Patients and Professionals for Customized Care (P2C2) has made it as simple as completing a form and one click. Click here to preserve your rights.

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 animal-related non-profit program you designate. If you'd like to submit or discuss a story, please send us an E-mail.

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

405 Heron Drive Suite 200
Swedesboro, NJ 08085-1749
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