Fund from MOH will finance scholarships

Todayonline May 30 by SHERALYN TAY

COUNSELLOR, drug expert, dietary adviser, clinical coordinator and referral personnel. You may not know it, but these are the many roles a pharmacist plays.

Take community pharmacist Tang Li Jin. As one of the 1:,500 registered pharmacists here, she not only dispenses medication, but also helps elderly patients sort through presciptions from different doctors, weeding out drug duplications or interactions — the potentially harmful combinations of drugs. Often, she will advise patients on side effects and how to prevent or manage them. And if required, she can refer patients for further medical treatment.

Pharmacist’s Pledge Affirmation ceremony

The Straits Times, 1 Jun 2008, By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent 

Patients here will be able to save millions of dollars on medicine over the next few years as several commonly used branded drugs lose their patents and cheaper generic ones come on the market.

Heart and cancer patients - a group that will probably grow in size as the population ages - are likely to see the biggest savings because many of the branded drugs they use are expected to lose their hold after two decades of protection under patents.

A patent usually lasts 20 years to give manufacturers a chance to recoup the $1 billion average cost of developing a new drug.

A generic drug, which can cost just half the price of a brand-name one, is allowed for use here only if it produces almost the same results as the original.

The Electric New Paper, 27 May 2008
By Ng Wan Ching
 
Drugs look the same? But for diabetes man... Switching to generic drugs
SAVES PATIENT $500 A MONTH

AFTER suffering diabetes for years, Mr Lee Bee Han, 69, was told his blood pressure needed to be controlled. 
 
The problem was the landscape engineer could not afford the medicine prescribed by a doctor at Gleneagles Medical Centre, which cost $3.50 per capsule.

'I told the doctor I have no money,' he said. 'The doctor gave me a prescription and asked me to try and buy it elsewhere at a cheaper price.'

Mr Lee went to Alexandra Hospital, where he met a helpful pharmacist.

'She said she would help me by getting a generic drug which would do the same thing as the branded drug,' said Mr Lee.

The Electric New Paper, 27 May 2008

GETTING a drug product licence is a stringent process.

Under the Medicines Act, a medicinal product must be approved by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) before it can be sold in Singapore.

Scientific data must be submitted to substantiate the safety, efficacy and quality of the product.

All that is carefully reviewed before a product approval is granted, HSA deputy director Madam C Suwarin said. 'It can sometimes be a daunting amount of paperwork for us!'

Manufacturing plants are also subject to approval by HSA.

'But it is impossible to check every single one, every single time. So we use a risk-based auditing programme,' she said.

For the first time, Singapore will be hosting the 22nd FAPA Congress.

Calling your friends and dedicated pharmacists/ students to be a buddy to our
500 overseas delegates and charm them with - an unique experience that's truly Singapore!

Todayonline, Tuesday • May 20, 2008

Google on Monday launched Google Health, a long-anticipated medical records service letting US users store and manage their health care information online.

The offering raises privacy concerns and draws yet another battle line between Internet search king Google and global software giant Microsoft, which began offering a similar HealthVault service in October.

"It isn't surprising both sides are going after it," Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle told AFP.

Letter to Straits Times Forum, May 12, 2008

ON MAY 3, my husband, a retired civil servant, and I went to the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) pharmacy to collect Glucosamine capsules prescribed to me by an SGH specialist doctor. We are entitled to civil service medical benefits.
When the capsules were given to us, we asked the pharmacist why my friend, who is not a civil servant but had the same prescription, was given a different type of medicine. He said private patients were normally given 'branded' medicine but we were given a different type which was cheaper.

When we asked if the cheaper medicine was less effective, he said it was just as good.

I then asked why private patients were given more expensive medicine and not 'equally good but cheaper' medicine. He could only say: 'Cannot, they are private patients.'

Perhaps SGH can explain why private patients are not given 'equally good but cheaper' medicine.

Chin Fong (Mdm)

The Straits Times, May 10, 2008

PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE- Allow drug firms to advertise their products
By Salma Khalik 

ONLY two countries in the world - the United States and New Zealand - allow drug companies to advertise prescription medicine.

All others forbid direct- to-consumer advertisements, for fear that they could lead to over-consumption of medicine.

These countries, Singapore included, argue that such ads could turn perfectly healthy people into hypochondriacs, seeing medical symptoms where there are none.

They fear advertisements could push up health-care costs, as people deluded by sales pitches start demanding medicines of their doctors. Drug companies that advertise would also need to pass on the cost of running the ads to consumers, further raising the price of drugs.

The Straits Times, May 5, 2008

HSA says the campaigns are really thinly veiled ads, which are banned here; some also use scare tactics
By Salma Khalik 

DRUG companies have been told to stop running 'educational' advertisements because they are anything but educational.

The Health Sciences Authority (HSA), Singapore's medicines regulator, is concerned about the increasingly 'creative' slant drug companies are taking. It told The Straits Times that these educational campaigns were thinly veiled advertisements, which are banned here.

It plans to re-look the issue with the industry. It wants stricter rules to ensure that drug companies do not cross the line, using campaigns to push their products.

The Straits Times March 7, 2008

Each patient can save up to $2k under TTSH scheme, where pharmacists monitor dosage of wafarin
By Lee Hui Chieh 

A PROGRAMME that sees pharmacists monitor warded patients on a tricky-to-control blood-thinning drug has helped many people go home early and avoid costly bills, according to medical professionals.
The scheme, which began last year, has slashed hospital stays by half for patients on the medication, called wafarin, at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).

The drug is notoriously difficult to manage and patients spend the bulk of their time in hospital waiting for doctors to find the correct dosage.

The Straits Times, April 1, 2008

Use the drugs, also available in Singapore, only as last resort: Experts

CHICAGO - TWO of the world's best-selling drugs to lower cholesterol might have no benefit, researchers have reported, a development that could alter significantly how patients are treated for heart disease.
Based on the news, a top medical journal has encouraged doctors to stop prescribing them routinely.

Vytorin and a related drug, Zetia, did not reduce fatty plaque in arteries any more than a generic, researchers at a cardiology conference in Chicago said on Sunday.

The Straits Times, April 11, 2008

Cholesterol drugs: Ask doc before dropping them

WE ARE concerned that the report, 'Two top cholesterol drugs may have no benefits' (April 1), may lead patients to stop taking their medications without first checking with their doctors. The article referred to Vytorin and Zetia.
Vytorin comprises 'Simvastatin' and 'Ezetemibe' combined, while Ezetimibe on its own is marketed as Zetia in the United States or Ezetrol in Singapore.