Grocery chain to offer free antibiotics

A St. Louis grocery chain began offering a limited supply of many generic brands of antibiotics free to patients with a doctors' prescription.

Schnucks market on Monday launched a program to offer a 21-day supply of more than 54 generic antibiotics free of charge at any of its nearly 100 in-store pharmacies, the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat reported Wednesday.

Michael Juergensmeyer, Schnucks vice president of pharmacy, said the program was a "long-term initiative" aimed at reducing consumer costs and bolstering more business.

"It's a great opportunity to extend our cost-reduction program," the News-Democrat quoted Juergensmeyer as saying.

The program includes such oral antibiotics as amoxicillin, erythromycin and penicillin. Juergensmeyer said the list might expand in the future.

Juergensmeyer told the News-Democrat the deal comes on the heels of similar programs in Florida and said he had phoned area doctors and hospitals asking them to recommend the program.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

   

• taisha99 - Nov 01, 2007
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  Isn't this going to lead to the prescribing ofg antibiotics when they are not necessary ?
  This would then increase the proliferation of resistant organisms.
  
  Anything for a buck .
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• fredrick - Nov 01, 2007
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  "Isn't this going to lead to the prescribing ofg antibiotics when they are not necessary?"
  
  - I can't imagine that its going to lead to any drastic increase in anti-biotic prescriptions. Doctors are still only going to prescribe anti-biotics when they are necessary/relevent - not for the common cold or a broken arm... and doctors know as well as anyone else that too many anti-biotics aren't a good thing (at least the one's I've visited do, as they try to avoid prescribing too many anti-biotics for their patients)
  
  Anyway people still need to get a prescription - that is, people are still going to have to *pay for their doctor, which is going to cost far more than the anti-biotics did when they weren't free. So (1) a person with a very minor ailment isn't going to bother to go see a doctor for it just to get a free drug; whereas (2) a person with a more serious ailement is going to go see the doctor, and if it was worth bothering to go then they probably would have gotten the prescription anyway.
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• tswogger - Nov 01, 2007
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
  As a soon to be pharmacist, I am a little disturbed by what this chain is doing. First of all, giving away antibiotics for "free" seems to me to devalue what we do as pharmacists, as each prescription normally has a service charge attached in the overall fee, compensating us for our professional services rendered. With Walmart's 4 dollar generic drug plan released last spring, companies have been in an all out war to bring customers in, but at what cost to patient safety? I mean, every customer within a 3 mile radius of this pharmacy chain WILL bring their prescriptions there because yes the drugs are free, but the number of staff Pharmacists will most likely NOT increase and it is unlikely that technicians will either. Huge prescription volumes put pharmacists under a lot of stress, and in the grocery store setting customers are always impatient and in a rush because their ice cream is melting or their meat is getting warm; they just want their prescriptions ASAP. I just don't understand it because everyone always talks about the costly mistakes that happen when people get the wrong prescription or the wrong dose, but nobody stands back and says "why did that happen." It's obvious that the supermarket is able to offer free prescriptions (and take a huge loss in pharmacy profits) because they want people in the store to buy milk, bread, eggs, and whatever else they can while waiting for their medication. So when people say that the pharmacy is so great because it cares about people who can't afford drugs or that this program is amazing, please consider this company's real motive, overall retail profits at the potential cost your safety, while devaluing their own pharmacists.
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• fredrick - Nov 03, 2007
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  ha!
  sorry, your comment was a good one (look see, I gave it a 5) - but this made me laugh:
  "please consider this company's real motive, overall retail profits"
  ... did anyone actually think it was otherwise?
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