Lawmaker proposes donating unused medications to needy


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SALT LAKE CITY — Every day, health workers throw away medication that is unopened and unused because their patients get better, switch drugs or even pass away.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville, proposes saving those unused prescription drugs and donating them to the needy.

HB236 would allow certain physician's offices, pharmacies, manufacturers and nursing facilities to donate unused medications to "medically indigent" individuals — those on Medicaid, Medicare or uninsured.

At a House Health and Human Services Committee meeting Monday, Froerer said the charitable prescription drug recycling program bill is modeled after a similar program in Oklahoma.

Over the past 10 years, the Oklahoma program has filled more than $16 million worth of prescriptions in recycled medications for a cost of less than $6,000, NPR reported.

Many states have some form of a drug recycling program, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Many focus specifically on cancer drugs.

The California-based nonprofit SIRUM helps four states — California, Oregon, Colorado and Ohio — administer drug recycling programs.

"There's always built-in surplus in each step of the supply chain," said SIRUM co-founder George Wang. "Wholesalers have a little bit, manufacturers have a little bit, pharmacies have a little bit, hospitals have a little bit. All that 'little bit' adds up to quite a lot of surplus."

The surplus, according to Wang, is to the tune of $5 billion of unused, unexpired medications destroyed every year in the U.S.

There is some debate about how effective these programs can be.

In a 2009 report, Emory University public health historian Elena Conis said there was "limited evidence" that cancer drug recycling programs have had a big impact.

The main obstacles, she said, are lack of awareness, lack of organization and concern that the program doesn't provide a steady supply of medication for patients.

But Wang said that since SIRUM was founded four years ago, the organization has moved $5 million in medicine from donors to recipients.

"It's kind of unbelievable that this medicine would have been literally carted off and incinerated and burned," he said.

According to Wang, the most common donated drugs are medications for diabetes, heart disease and asthma, which happen to correlate with the most common medical conditions among low-income patients.

Froerer's bill establishes criteria for which medication can be donated and who can donate it.

For example, the medication must be in sealed packaging and unexpired. And controlled substances are not allowed to be recycled, according to the bill.

The bill directs the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing to consult with the Utah State Board of Pharmacy to set up the program.

According to fiscal analysts, the bill would cost the Utah Department of Commerce about $8,200 to establish the program and then $1,200 a year ongoing.

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Daphne Chen

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