Supermarket To Offer Free Antibiotics

(AP)  Publix supermarket chain said Monday it will make seven common prescription antibiotics available for free, joining other major retailers in trying to lure customers to their stores with cheap medications.

The oral antibiotics, the most commonly filled at the chain's pharmacies, will be available at no cost to anyone with a prescription as often as they need them, Publix Chief Executive Charlie Jenkins Jr. said. Fourteen-day supplies of the seven drugs will be available at all 684 of the chain's pharmacies in five Southern states.

The prescription antibiotics available under the program are amoxicillin, cephalexin, penicillin VK, erythromycin, ampicillin, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim and ciprofoxacin.

Gov. Charlie Crist went to a suburban Fort Myers store to help the company make the announcement and to praise the Lakeland-based employee-owned company, one of the dominant retailers in the region.

"It can't be any more affordable than free," Crist said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kmart and other retailers already offer discounted drug programs. But Publix Super Markets Inc. officials say the company is the first large regional chain to offer certain drugs at no cost. In addition to Florida, the company operates stores in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.

With health care costs one of the biggest challenges facing many Americans, Crist said that the private sector's involvement in the solution was "a great trend."

Jenkins acknowledged that increasing pharmacy sales was a part of the company's motivation, but said the company also wanted to contribute to making health care more affordable.

"Frankly, we're interested in building our pharmacy business," said Jenkins. "But moreover, we want to help the citizens of our state have affordable health care, and we thought this was just a good start in doing that."

Barbara Lemay, who was shopping in the Publix where Crist and the company made the announcement, said it would be a good start for her.

"I've been on antibiotics occasionally, and to get anything free with the price of medications today is phenomenal," she said. "People just can't afford the medications. You have no insurance, you're looking at hundreds of dollars a month."

Lemay, who gets Social Security benefits, said if she is prescribed one of the antibiotics she definitely would go to Publix to get it, and said it could save her "thousands of dollars."

Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, secretary of Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration and a pediatrician, said many of the antibiotics are prescribed for children, and he noted that Florida has 3.6 million uninsured people and many who have some insurance but no coverage for prescription drugs.

"So I hope (Publix stores) are ready," Agwunobi said, predicting a heavy response.

Wal-Mart last year started offering hundreds of prescription drugs of all different kinds, ranging from diabetes medication to high blood pressure drugs, for $4. It hopes it can draw more shoppers into its stores who may come for prescriptions and then stay to buy in other departments.

Kmart, a unit of Sears Holding Corp., began last month offering a 90-day supply of generic drugs for $15. Now, more than 300 drugs are included in that program.

[grammawhamma]

It amazes me how many posters either do not read the article they are commenting on or do not comprehend what they are reading!

There is no problem to giving away free antibiotics "WITH" a prescription. The problem lies with the over use of prescription antibiotics. MD's should never prescribe antibiotics just to appease the parents of a sick child that has a viral infection. Seandgreen is correct that people need to finish their entire prescription of antibiotics.

[dan9111]

"I'm not justifying the country's drug laws, I'm just stating that they are enacted in the context of the society that we live in."

No. They are enacted by the government. Their policy can be rationalized no better, nor is it more relevant than the trafficking policy of drug lords. The society we live in doesn't give a hoot, except to the extent individuals are willing to pay for whichever drugs or use whichever violence to get their way. All sides are equally a "context of society", not just the government's side.

This antibiotic problem is made worse by having regulation in place. Why would the drug manufacture want to reduce the effectiveness of their own product? The don't, it is financial suicide. Now add a federal regulatory mechanism, and a tax-funded research system for newer better antibiotics, and suddenly it is more profitable to keep the consumer switching to the fancy new effective drugs at an super-inflated price.

[rational_1]

rational_1, it is hypocrisy if we are told "cigarettes are killing people", and then suddenly it becomes OK the threaten people with violence for possessing substances that are safer.

If you believe, and I don't know if you do, that people are too evil or stupid to make their own choices, then remember the FDA is just people. They are evil or stupid, and can make big mistakes. The only difference is, they do it with your money and not their own.
Posted by Dan9111 at 03:10 PM : Aug 07, 2007

I'm not justifying the country's drug laws, I'm just stating that they are enacted in the context of the society that we live in. Like I said, alcohol is arguably more dangerous than Valium (cirrhosis, organic brain damage, fetal alcohol syndrome, cardiovascular problems, etc), yet Valium is much more tightly controlled than alcohol. You could make some of the same arguments about tetrahydrocannabinol vs. nicotine and that the government should legalize marijuana consumption so that the weed smokers could finally get filters on their joints. My point is that drug policy in this country is certainly not rational and I would agree that if Teddy Kennedy ever started spouting off about the evils of pot, he'd be a hypocrite. But this 'conversation' is getting way off topic...

[dan9111]

rational_1, it is hypocrisy if we are told "cigarettes are killing people", and then suddenly it becomes OK the threaten people with violence for possessing substances that are safer.

If you believe, and I don't know if you do, that people are too evil or stupid to make their own choices, then remember the FDA is just people. They are evil or stupid, and can make big mistakes. The only difference is, they do it with your money and not their own.

[bobnjersey]

["It can't be any more affordable than free," Crist said. ]

how times have changed ... c(h)rist is now peddaling free drugs.

[rational_1]

Meanwhile, the will still sell CIGARETTES without requiring a presciption. Why is this substance still being regulated by the government? Hypocrisy.
Posted by Dan9111 at 02:50 PM : Aug 07, 2007

I'm not sure it's hypocrisy but it certainly isn't done very rationally. Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are all psychoactive compounds, but they just happen to be socially-accepted psychoactive compounds, at least in our society. Central American Indians have a long history of hallucinogen use as part of their religious rituals and so peyote is acceptable to them, but clearly not to us (mom and dad are never happy to see junior high on LSD). I could argue that benzodiazepines like Valium are much safer sedatives than alcohol (they are), but we need prescriptions to get them. Our drug laws don't make a lot of sense when we ask why certain compounds are tightly regulated while others aren't. More than anything else I think it largely comes down to societal mores.

[dan9111]

Meanwhile, the will still sell CIGARETTES without requiring a presciption. Why is this substance still being regulated by the government? Hypocrisy.

[rational_1]

Drug resistance is purely a product of poor patient compliance, and little to do with the antibiotic itself. How many out there have received a prescription of antibiotics, and took them for less than the time prescribed? A show of hands? Uh-huh. THIS is why resistance is so high.
Posted by seandgreen at 02:26 PM : Aug 07, 2007

Excellent, EXCELLENT point seandgreen. Antibiotic resistance occurs because patients feel better after a few days of antibiotic treatment and figure it's okay to stop treatment. But this leads to preferentially killing off the bacteria least adapted to survive in the presence of the antibiotic (Darwin lives!), thus inevitably leading to antibiotic resistance. I teach an undergrad pharmacology course at UT Austin and one of my 'take home' messages to students is to always finish the entire round of antibiotics they're prescribed, no matter how they feel. Another thing to do is not push your M.D. for an antibiotic prescription after he tells you your kid has a virus.

[erasmus6]

I wonder, do people actually read these articles before posting? I don't think so.

They aren't talking about handing them out to every person off the street, they still have to have a prescription!!

[cbsreader4]

I SAY, BRAVO!