PATIENTS CAN GIVE DRUGS FOR CANCER TO THE NEEDY

For the first time, Florida will let cancer patients donate unused,
unopened medications that otherwise would be thrown away, for use by
people without health-care coverage.

The new law (HB 371) that took effect July 1 is more restrictive than
what other states have done. Florida's program, still being created,
covers only cancer-related medicine and only if it has been in control
of an institution -- for example, a hospital or nursing home -- for
safety reasons. Patients cannot donate drugs they have had at home.

But cancer patients and advocates hailed the law. And officials called
it just a first step, saying they will push to expand drug donations
next year.

"I'm just thrilled they're going to make this available," said Kelly
Madrid, of Delray Beach, a three-year breast cancer survivor and
volunteer activist. "When I was a patient, there was a lot of
medication, and I didn't take half of it.''

Ryan Reid, a policy director for the American Cancer Society in
Florida, said it will be a great benefit "to put to use unused
portions of drugs that often times are very expensive, and be able to
help uninsured people."

The Florida Department of Health, which oversees the program, had no
estimate for how many of the state's 3.5 million uninsured people
might be helped by the donations, to be distributed by hospitals.
State officials said they hoped it would be hundreds per year.

More than $1 billion of unused prescription medicine is thrown away
every year across the nation, the drug industry estimates. Typically,
drugs go untaken because patients die, they cannot tolerate them or
doctors change their treatment regimens, leaving behind sealed boxes
of pills and injectable medicine.

"We just have to flush them down the toilet," said Dr. Pamela Sutton,
palliative-care director for the North Broward Hospital District.
"This is a very common problem. Some people would like to donate them."

Thirty-four states have decided to permit drug donations, starting
with Georgia in 1997. Many allow donations of any prescription
medicine, and a few, such as Minnesota, allow people to donate
factory-sealed drugs kept at home.

The sponsor of the Florida law, Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart,
initially proposed allowing donations of drugs from homes, but said
she dropped the idea after objections from drugmakers and
pharmacists.

Officials fear that drugs controlled by patients could be adulterated,
contaminated or stored improperly, Harrell said. In the future, she
said, she would try again to allow donations from homes for drugs in
factory-sealed blister packs or containers.

Next spring, Harrell said she would propose expanding the donations to
other conditions, such as HIV/AIDS and heart disease.

"Once the rules are written and [the] program starts, we will look at
how we can we pull in more medications," said Harrell, the wife of a
retired physician and chairwoman of House Health Care General Committee.

The new law allows patients or their representatives to donate
unopened medicine held in their names by nursing homes,
assisted-living facilities, hospitals, hospices, doctors or other
institutions. Until now, the law required that such drugs be
destroyed. Costly cancer treatments as well as anti-nausea drugs,
anti-anxiety drugs and supplies could be donated, but not painkillers.
Drug makers and distributors could donate, too.

Unused drugs would be given to participating hospital pharmacies. A
website would list available drugs, and doctors could help uninsured
patients or those not covered for the drugs apply for them.

Nursing homes probably would be the most fertile grounds for
donations, said Phil Johnson, pharmacy director at H. Lee Moffitt
Cancer Center in Tampa, who helped write the law.

But he conceded that barring drugs kept in the home greatly reduces
the amount of donations.

"The optimist says there are big opportunities. The pessimist says ...
they won't get many donations," Johnson said.

But the new state program likely will have no effect on underground
networks by which individuals donate unused drugs to others who need
them, sometimes with help of health workers, officials and advocates
said.

Doctors and pharmacists frown on the unsupervised sharing of medicine,
but it's generally legal to give drugs away, Johnson said.

A Wilton Manors man, who asked to be identified only by his first
name, Ed, said he recently gave away $8,000 to $9,000 worth of
unopened HIV/AIDS medications after his partner of 10 years died from
the disease.

An HIV patient, Don, 49, said he donated two months worth of costly
pills to an uninsured friend this year. "You're never going to stop
the sharing of medications among friends," said Don, who asked to be
identified by first name only. "Never."