UPDATED Question of the Day September 1, 2013 How Many Clinics Does a Compounding Veterinary Pharmacy Have to Sell To Before It is Considered Doing More than Traditional Compounding? This one claimed to sell to 9000 veterinary clinics nationwide in 2009 and 11000 in 2012.

Huntington mixes up the right prescription for Roadrunner Pharmacy

[PRESS RELEASE]  San Diego, CA, October 26, 2009 – Huntington Capital mixes up the right prescription for Eaton Veterinary Pharmaceutical, Inc. (dba “Roadrunner Pharmacy”).

Huntington Capital Fund II, LP (“Huntington”), a San Diego based private equity mezzanine fund focused on providing growth capital financing to established lower middle-market businesses throughout California and the Southwestern U.S., is pleased to announce its recent investment in veterinary compounding company Eaton Veterinary Pharmaceutical, Inc. (dba “Roadrunner Pharmacy”).  The purpose of the financing is to support growth and new product development. Founded in 1999, Roadrunner is one of the leading compounding pharmacies in the nation, providing veterinarians and their patients with off the shelf and custom pet medications. Unlike human medical doctors, veterinarians do not have the luxury of a wide variety of commercially available pharmaceuticals.  Eaton has a staff of highly trained pharmacists and prescriptions are compounded in house and shipped out next day air free of charge.

“Roadrunner is the exact type of growth opportunity that we are looking to support in this type of environment,” noted Huntington Partner Tim Bubnack.  “The company is led by an entrepreneur that has done a fantastic job of bootstrapping the business while successfully leading exponential growth over the last few years. In general, we believe that consumers are going to continue to spend money on non-discretionary type items, including medication for their household pets, no matter what is happening in the overall macro environment.  We continue to see this play out in the company’s overall performance.  Outside of their core business, we are also very excited about the potential of several FDA approved medications that are currently in development stage by the company.”

Eaton Veterinary Pharmaceutical, Inc (dba “Roadrunner Pharmacy”)
Roadrunner Pharmacy is one of the leading veterinary compounding pharmacies in the nation.  Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the company currently sells to over 9,000 veterinary clinics nationwide.  Roadrunner is committed to providing the highest quality custom medications at reasonable prices, with all new prescriptions shipped next day air free of charge.  For more information, please visit the company website at www.roadrunnerpharmacy.com.

Huntington Capital
Based in San Diego, CA, Huntington Capital is a leading mezzanine capital provider to lower middle market companies throughout California and the Southwestern United States.  Founded in 2000, Huntington is currently operating out of its second fund, Huntington Capital Fund II, which it raised in 2008 with $78 million in capital commitments from a group of leading institutional investors.  Huntington seeks to invest in established lower middle market businesses generating between $10 million and $75 million in revenues across a broad range of industries; investments are typically structured in the form of growth capital, buyout or acquisition financing ranging between $1.0 million and $6.0 million.  The firm has invested in approximately 35 companies since its founding.  Partners Morgan Miller, Barry Wilson and Tim Bubnack lead Huntington’s management team. For more information, please visit the company website at www.huntingtoncapital.com.

quoted from here

See here for figure of 11000 in 2012

HUMAN-ANIMAL MEDICINE: COMMUNICATING ACROSS THE SPECIES DIVIDE

On June 25th, 2013, the Animal Health Institute (AHI), along with the American College of Preventive Medicine and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges brought together physicians, veterinarians, policymakers, academics and industry stakeholders for a panel discussion. The event on Capitol Hill focused on the nexus between human and animal health and examined the differences and similarities between physicians and veterinarians knowing that they treat different types of “patients.”

AHI recently posted several videos from the discussion.

A video recap of the event is available on our YouTube Channel.

For individual presentations, please visit the event page on healthyanimals.org.

Pharmacists: Partnering with physicians to curb the national prescription drug abuse crisis

September 01, 2013

Editorial for Special Pain Section

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Recent American Medical Association (AMA) resolutions addressing the increase in verification calls received from pharmacists about controlled substances describe such calls as “inappropriate interference with the practice of medicine.” These resolutions additionally call for legislative advocacy to stop pharmacists’ request for patient information when determining prescription legitimacy. While it’s important to note that the AMA is working closely with professional pharmacy organizations, including the American Pharmacists Association, to address concerns, it’s equally imperative that we understand the events leading up to this impasse.

For nearly a decade, Florida has been recognized as the “pill-mill” capital of the United States. Efforts by law enforcement to combat this plague largely failed prior to the establishment of the Florida Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (E-FORCSE). “Pain management” clinics thrived, and millions of doses of the drugs oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, methadone, and alprazolam were prescribed and subsequently dispensed at local pharmacies. As Walgreens is the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, inevitably many of these local pharmacies were units of Walgreens.

In an unprecedented move, DEA in September 2012 halted shipments from the Jupiter, FL–based Walgreens distribution center and suspended registration. DEA cited “failure to maintain effective controls against the diversion of controlled substances into other than legitimate medical, scientific, and industrial channels.” Furthermore, the Settlement and Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between DEA and Walgreens cited alleged “dispensing … of controlled substances to individuals Walgreens knew or should have known were diverting controlled substances …” Among other stipulations of this MOA, Walgreens agreed to implement numerous policies and programs that ultimately ensure that controlled substances only be dispensed for a legitimate medical purpose or by a practitioner acting within the usual course of medical practice.  

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As Congress addresses compounding pharmacies

M. Keith Hodges, owner of Gloucester Pharmacy and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, writes in “First, do no further harm”:

As a pharmacist and small business owner, I can tell you for certain that provisions in a well-intended Senate proposal (S. 959) would hinder the ability of independent pharmacists across the country to compound medications for their patients who might not be able to get these vital prescriptions anywhere else.

Additionally, the measure would require pharmacies to report directly to the Food and Drug Administration when they are compounding medications to alleviate a drug shortage. State boards of pharmacy regulate the practice of pharmacy in each state. During the H1NI outbreak several years ago, when Tamiflu was in short supply, independent pharmacies utilized their compounding expertise to fill the void for countless children. As drug shortages continue to skyrocket with no relief in sight, Congress must make certain that patients receive all necessary medications in a timely manner, not create further delays by adding additional federal bureaucracy.

Niels Erik Hansen, president and CEO of Intelligent Hospital Systems in Winnipeg, writes in “Technology can make compounding safer”:

Medication compounding is a common practice in hospitals and pharmacies. Physicians prescribe combinations of medicines that are mixed in a single syringe or IV bag for a specific patient. To make these compounds accurately and safely, pharmacists must measure and combine drugs with meticulous care — for example, diluting a few milliliters of one drug and adding an equally small quantity of another. But despite the best efforts of pharmacy workers to mix medications perfectly, humans are not perfect.

One of the biggest advantages automated pharmacy compounding technology provides is removing the primary source of contamination and error — humans — from the compounding process. And automated compounding systems deliver many more benefits than the ability to make highly precise sterile compounds exactly right every time.

- See more at: http://blogs.roanoke.com/roundtable/2013/09/as-congress-addresses-compounding-pharmacies/#sthash.Si0OI6PO.dpuf

Technology can make compounding safer

Last year’s deadly meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated steroid injections is a tragic reminder of the risks inherent in manual pharmacy medication compounding. Unsanitary conditions at the Massachusetts compounding pharmacy that made the injections resulted in fungal contamination of the drugs. The resulting outbreak sickened almost 750 people and killed more than 60.

Virginia was one of 20 states impacted, with 54 cases of illness and five deaths. As this paper reported, some of those who became ill continue to struggle with symptoms almost a year later.

Although this outbreak is an egregious example of medication compounding gone awry, it is hardly an isolated incident. In addition to product recalls from compounding pharmacies in Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey and Texas, among others, the Food and Drug Administration continues to investigate adverse patient reactions to steroid injections produced by a compounding pharmacy in Tennessee.

In December, the journal American Health & Drug Benefits reported that medication errors from injectable drugs harm more than 1 million patients annually in U.S. hospitals. Adverse drug events due to injectable medications cost U.S. health care payers between $2.7 billion and $5.1 billion annually, an average of $600,000 per hospital.

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