[Pharmwaste] [EXTERNAL] FYI: FDA Unveils Public Education Campaign on Safe Opioid Disposal

Tue Apr 23 18:30:37 EDT 2019

RE FDA's medicine disposal guidance: in recent months I have noticed a small
shift in FDA's emphasis on disposal options that is an improvement towards
clarifying that secure medicine take-back programs are preferred over
flushing drugs, or trashing them, even for the drugs on the "flush list".
The improved, albeit still not optimal, messaging is in an infographic that
lists the first question as "Do you have a drug take-back option readily
available?". Here's the infographic in thumbnail:

The infographic is linked from this central page: "Disposal of Unused
Medicines: What You Should Know":

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resourcesforyou/consumers/buyingusingmedicinesafel
y/ensuringsafeuseofmedicine/safedisposalofmedicines/ucm186187.htm

A challenge with FDA's messaging on the website is that all 3 disposal
options for consumers - take-back, flushing, trashing - are described and
intermingled on web pages, often without a consistent hierarchy. Sometimes
the images on the page provide a different emphasis that the text on the
page.

Also older guidances are still up, like on this page
https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm101653.htm 

There's also still the glaring omission that local solid waste or wastewater
policies may differ from the FDA's guidance in discouraging flushing or
trashing.

Margaret Shield, PhD

(pronouns: she/her/hers)

Community Environmental Health Strategies, LLC

 <mailto:margaret.shield at CEHstrategies.com>
margaret.shield at CEHstrategies.com

mobile:  206-499-5452

 <http://www.cehstrategies.com/> www.CEHstrategies.com 

From: Pharmwaste <pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us> On Behalf Of
Volkman, Jennifer (MPCA)
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2019 12:48 PM
To: Jones, Diane B., R.Ph. <Jones.Diane at mayo.edu>;
pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: Re: [Pharmwaste] [EXTERNAL] FYI: FDA Unveils Public Education
Campaign on Safe Opioid Disposal

I sent a note to the "Stakeholder engagement staff" asking for another link.
I searched around on the website a bit and didn't find it. I did find this
"DCER Conversation" with the same guy pictured below that you can read here
if you are interested: https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/NewsEvents/ucm464197.htm It
appears that this was posted in 2015, so perhaps they've made a change on
the FDA recommendations (not requirements) for proper disposal. 

Scanning a few areas of the website show that FDA is still advocating for
sewering of a certain list of medications, so nothing has changed other than
they appear to have added more of a description as to why they favor
sewering certain drugs. Given the danger of fentanyl patches and actual
deaths caused, I don't see their guidance changing. They do note the
existence of collection options and refer to the DEA's search engine to
locate collection sites. DEA's search widget only include pharmacies, most
likely because they must register with DEA, while law enforcement does not,
so they don't have the info to include them on a search. We are still at 2/3
law enforcement and 1/3 pharmacies hosting collection bins here in MN, so
using our own search engine is better. I would imagine that several of you
have your own more comprehensive search widgets yourselves. 

Sorry for the bum steer on the link, if I get a corrected link, I'll forward
it to the group. It is likely that this occurs tomorrow since tomorrow's
date is included in the link (?) I'm not expecting any change, but it would
be good to know what they are going to do with this campaign and how widely
they'll promote it.  

From: Jones, Diane B., R.Ph. < <mailto:Jones.Diane at mayo.edu>
Jones.Diane at mayo.edu> 
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2019 2:09 PM
To: Volkman, Jennifer (MPCA) < <mailto:jennifer.volkman at state.mn.us>
jennifer.volkman at state.mn.us>;  <mailto:pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us>
pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] [Pharmwaste] FYI: FDA Unveils Public Education
Campaign on Safe Opioid Disposal

The link to register does not work- says not found.

From: Pharmwaste [ <mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us>
mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Volkman,
Jennifer (MPCA)
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2019 1:53 PM
To:  <mailto:pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us>
pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [Pharmwaste] FYI: FDA Unveils Public Education Campaign
on Safe Opioid Disposal

I hope they get this right and recommend using collection programs. Has
anyone on here been working with FDA on this?

From: U.S. Food and Drug Administration [ <mailto:fda at info.fda.gov>
mailto:fda at info.fda.gov] 

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April 22, 2019

Dear Colleague,

FDA is excited to announce the upcoming launch of a new public education
campaign to encourage safe disposal of unused opioid pain medicines. Please
join us on Wednesday, April 24th at 12:00 p.m. (EDT) to hear about this
important new effort and learn what you can do to reduce the chance of
accidental or intentional prescription opioid misuse among your
constituents, neighbors, friends, and loved ones.

To view webinar:
https://collaboration.fda.gov/rtr042419/event/registration.html.

Presenter Information: 

Douglas Throckmorton, M.D.

Deputy Center Director for Regulatory Programs

FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research

As Deputy Director for Regulatory Programs, Dr. Throckmorton shares the
responsibility for overseeing the regulation of research, development,
manufacture, and marketing of prescription, over-the-counter, and generic
drugs in the United States. He is committed to ensuring that the benefits of
approved drugs outweigh their known risks.

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