The Importance of Obtaining Prescriptions from Legitimate Sources

What can be done to raise awareness among consumers about the dangers of counterfeit medications and the importance of obtaining prescriptions from legitimate sources?

Peter Ax: I think what can best be done is information in the marketplace. It's about articles being written. It's about publications expressing concern for compounded medications relative to the actual medication. The consumer needs to be informed, and the best way to be informed is to is to read what's been written and what is going to be written about in the marketplace. You know, I think pharma companies have an obligation to promote their brand and to state that their brand will do what it's supposed to do, whereas anything less than their brand may not do what it's supposed to do, and that there are dangers. I mean, I think that's legitimate. So, it's to me, it's all about information in the marketplace, and that comes in lots of different forms. It comes from media. It comes from the pharma companies. They'll come from firms, like UpScript, telling the marketplace that, but here's the difficulties or challenges when you buy a compounded medication as opposed to buying a branded medication.

George Jones: What I'd add to that is, and I think Lily just took an important first step last week, and that is lowering the cost of the brand medications, either via expanded insurance coverage, which I know congress is discussing right now, but Lilly, you know, I took, I think, a very aggressive move to his impact these compounders, the litigation that I've seen out there has been mostly around trademark litigation, which, you know, I think, you know, the Lillys and the and the Novos will probably win those trademark disputes, but the compounders are typically pretty good marketers, and they'll work their way around those trademark concerns. So, by lowering the cost and making the product more available to more people to be able to help more people, I think that'll go a long way to ensuring a kind of a safer drug supply chain for patients out there.