HEALTH

Pharmacies are slow to adopt new state policy allowing Chantix without prescription

Amid much fanfare last month, the state health commissioner announced Hoosiers will now be able to buy smoking cessation products without a prescription in an effort to make it easier to quit the nicotine habit.

But more than two weeks after the policy went into effect at the start of this month, smokers say they are having trouble finding pharmacies that have started honoring the health commissioner's standing order, which takes the place of a doctor's prescription. 

State health officials say that they are working with pharmacies to help them implement the policy but acknowledge the change may not happen overnight.

“As with any new policy, it takes time to build momentum and awareness,” said Greta Sanderson, a spokesperson for the Indiana State Department of Health in an email. “ISDH has continued to promote the standing order and share protocols with pharmacies and other stakeholders who have picked up the ball.”

Hoosiers can now buy smoking cessation products without an individual doctor's prescription, an initiative that the state put in place to encourage more people to quit.

Eskenazi Health spokeswoman Michelle O’Keefe said the health system’s pharmacists have to undergo training before they will be able to dispense medications such as Chantix or Zyban to patients without a doctor’s prescription.

Until this training ends, the hospital system will help patients contact their doctors for a prescription or explore products available over the counter, O’Keefe said. She said she did not have an exact date when the new policy would go into effect.

“We are working as quickly as we can through all the logistics,” she said. “This really is a great thing for our state, and we are moving as fast as possible to get everything in place.”

Chain pharmacies such as CVS also may need more time to implement the new protocol, which was finalized at the end of July. CVS did not respond to a request for comment.

At Kroger, the corporate pharmacy team is reviewing the standing order, said Eric Halvorson, company spokesman in an email. 

"We want to make sure everyone understands the responsibility that comes with it," he said. "Our priority is always the safety of our patients."

The national pharmacy chains have said it will take them four to six weeks to offer smoking cessations products under the standing order, said Randy Hitchens, executive vice president of the Indiana Pharmacists Association.

“The ink is still drying” on the protocol, he said.

This situation is similar to what happened when naloxone, a drug that can reverse a potentially deadly opioid overdose, was made available without prescription in 2015 to first responders and family members, Hitchens said. In that case, independent pharmacies had naloxone first and the chains followed about six to nine months later.

Vaping illness:Mystery ailment sickens 11 in Indiana, nearly 100 nationally

Some independent pharmacies already are dispensing smoking cessation products under the standing policy.

“We can provide that without a problem,” said Hamid Abbaspour, owner and pharmacist of Dr. Aziz Pharmacy in Castleton, when asked whether smoking cessation products were available at his store without an individual doctor’s prescription. “We still have our pharmacist make a judgement call whether the patient is appropriate for Chantix or any other medication.”

Contact IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at 317-444-6354 or  shari.rudavsky@indystar.com. Follow her on  Facebook and on Twitter: @srudavsky.