I attended the State Board of Pharmacy in Florida. I will upload a video of the meeting later in the week.

The meeting didn’t go well. No additional action will be required to protect our life-saving medications during transport as they know most of our medications are being shipped in only bags in mail-boxes and trucks proven to reach higher than 120-150 degrees in the summer heat. This is far outside of any temperature range that most manufacturers who perform the stability testing would approve of or say is safe. Due to this, no one should be forced to use mail-order pharmacy that is so loosely regulated that it is jeopardizing the lives of many Americans and many are unaware that their life is at risk.

I was thankful yet saddened to meet with a patient whose condition worsened after the medication was shipped in the high heat all summer long. She didn’t think too much about it until she met her delivery driver outside of her home as he was delivering her life-saving medications that were shipped in only a thin box. His head was dripping with sweat and the box was hot to touch.

The patient contacted the manufacturer who does the testing and told her to discard the drug.

CVS Specialty said that they would replace the $11,000 drug but they would not provide any additional protection for the new shipment.

While on the phone with the specialty pharmacy, she contacted the FDA. The FDA told her to not take the drug after being exposed to such high-temperature extremes.

I asked the Board of Pharmacy to speak to USP prior to rushing into a regulation. USP helps write recommendations of medications during shipping that the FDA uses in its regulations.

I asked them to meet with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy that will be addressing this issue in the next board meeting.

I asked the Board to please require additional information on how to file a complaint when patients feel like their medications may be affected.

The Board did none of the above but did state that there are advocacy groups who can help get the word out about the risks associated with medications not being stored properly and how to file a complaint with the State Board of Pharmacy. I felt as this was directed at our advocacy group who doesn't have the billions of dollars that these mail-order pharmacies have to protect medications or warn patients.

The new rule will only point patients to call the mail-order pharmacy when they have concerns about medications and heat exposure, but I warned the Board that the mail-order pharmacies are repeatedly telling patients that their medications are safe when the mail-order pharmacies are not truly tracking the exact temperature of the package and the amount of time these packages are left in extreme conditions. Most medications are stored in only a bag outside far outside of proven safe temperatures as mailboxes and trucks can exceed 120-150 degrees. They are knowingly risking our lives. 

Upon watching the Florida State Board of Pharmacy rush to enact a rule that will do nothing more to protect our medications as the Board placed the responsibility on advocacy groups like mine to warn patients and as they also placed responsibility on the patient, I left the building in tears of hopelessness, but I quickly shook it off. We must keep fighting!

So WE will warn patients, and WE will and we will not stop until PBMs and their forced mail-order pharmacy are held accountable for every life they have risked.

In the meantime, this is a public health issue and forced mail-order pharmacy should urgently be stopped as no one is protecting the patients from these unethical acts. 

Please help by sharing your story Loretta@uniteforsafemedications and by making a tax-deductible donation to help with our advocacy and traveling costs

Thank you, 

Loretta Boesing