Winston-Salem, NC, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Winston-Salem, NC (April 25, 2018) – With the next National Prescription Take-Back Day taking place this Saturday, April 28, Inmar is reporting that their Consumer Drug Take-Back Program has expanded into 32 states -- after just one year in operation.
The program provides hospital and retail pharmacies and law enforcement agencies with DEA-compliant prescription drug take-back receptacles that patients and visitors use to simply and safely dispose of surplus and expired medications. Inmar then enables fully audited shipment of the collected medications to the company’s highly secure, strictly controlled processing center in Texas where they are destroyed.
Inmar’s solution helps address two major problems associated with surplus prescription medications:
- Diversion and misuse for non-medical purposes
- Improper and environmentally harmful disposal
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has reported that approximately 75 percent of heroin users have their first experience with opioids obtained from the medicine cabinets of family and friends. At the same time, an Associated Press investigation found measurable concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the water supplies of at least 46 million people in 24 major metropolitan areas.
So far this year (at the end of the first quarter of 2018), Inmar’s Consumer Drug Take-Back Program has taken nearly 4,000 pounds of unneeded medications out of circulation.
The program originated, in part, in response to the Castlight Health Report that ranked four cities in North Carolina among the 25 most opioid-addicted communities in the United States. Wilmington, NC was ranked first in the nation in the report.
While leaders at Inmar were conscious of the nationwide scope of the opioid crisis, the documented challenges faced by communities in the company’s home state provided additional impetus for accelerating development and deployment of the program. In October 2017 Inmar launched a special initiative placing receptacles in pharmacies throughout North Carolina and providing full subscription service at the receptacle sites free of charge for one full year.
“At Inmar, we’re committed to doing everything we can to help address this public health emergency,” says Inmar Chairman and CEO David Mounts. “We are very pleased that our Consumer Drug Take-Back Program is expanding throughout the country but it is especially gratifying to know that we are providing a critical resource for effective misuse mitigation for those communities in North Carolina that are so deeply affected by opioid abuse. As important as National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is, drug take-back should be an everyday occurrence and with our solution in place that has become a reality,” adds Mounts.
The pharmacies participating in Inmar’s original, special deployment of the Consumer Drug Take-Back Program are:
- Cape Fear Pharmacy (Wilmington)
- Benzer Pharmacy (Fuquay Varina and Mint Hill)
- UNC Student Stores Pharmacy (Chapel Hill)
- Upchurch Drugs (Durham)
- Lewisville Drug Company (Lewisville)
- PSA Clinic Pharmacy (Swannanoa)
- Yadkin Valley Pharmacy (Yadkinville)
- Stanleyville Family Pharmacy (Winston-Salem)
Inmar’s development of the Consumer Drug Take-Back program derived from the company’s decades of experience and industry leadership in managing pharmaceutical returns. Inmar currently processes product returns for nine of the top 15 pharmaceutical manufacturers, services more than 40,000 pharmacies and 84 percent of U.S. hospitals and health systems and processes more than 95 percent of the industry’s wholesale returns.
# # #