Minnesota Patients, Medical Professionals Act to Counter Drug Industry Marketing 
 
Groups join with Consumers Reports to get patients, doctors and pharmacists unbiased information on prescription drug effectiveness, safety and cost
 
The Minnesota Senior Federation and medical professionals were joined by Gov. Tim Pawlenty at the June 22^nd official launch of an ambitious effort to get free, unbiased information on the effectiveness, safety and cost of prescription drugs into the hands of residents concerned about spiraling drug costs. The project is designed to counter the relentless drug industry marketing that promotes the latest medicines, but not necessarily the most effective or affordable, and to help seniors, low-income residents, the uninsured and others access cost-effective medications.
 
The collaboration of Consumers Union and the Minnesota Senior Federation, in partnership with the Minnesota Medical Association, and with the support of the Minnesota Pharmacist Association, Minnesota’s non-profit health plans and State agencies, will provide consumers and doctors clear, objective criteria for choosing prescription drugs.
 
 “No longer will patients be led into making medication decisions based on drug companies’ marketing of pretty butterflies, pretty pills or beautiful scenery,” said Barbara Kaufman, president of the Minnesota Senior Federation-Metro Region.  “Using the Consumers Reports Best Buy Drugs program, patients with their physician will be able to choose medications based on the best clinical evidence of the drug’s effectiveness, safety, and in many cases, cost savings.”
     
The information is provided by Consumer Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumers Reports, through its innovative Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs program.  The free, public education project provides consumers with easy-to-understand information on side effects safety, effectiveness and cost based on the best available scientific evidence, not drug industry hype. The drug evaluations and “Best Buys” in more than a dozen drug categories are available on the Web at the Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs website

The Minnesota Senior Federation will be collaborating with physicians, health plans and pharmacists to counter drug company marketing with the easily understood Consumer Reports Best Buy Drug materials.  The Federation also will place small posters in medical clinic examining rooms and lobbies encouraging patients to talk to their doctor about the Consumers Reports Best Buy Drug program. It is expected that the posters will be appearing in thousands of examining rooms in Minnesota in the next few months. The Federation is also launching a significant consumer education program designed for community groups of all ages. 
 
The Minnesota Medical Association will encourage its members to discuss the effectiveness, safety, and cost of drugs with their patients, and increase physician awareness of the CR Best Buy drug information. The MMA is a professional association representing about 9,500 physicians, residents, and medical students in the state. "Whether or not our patients take their prescribed medications often depends on whether they can afford them," said David Luehr, M.D., president of the MMA.  "This information will help physicians talk to their patients about affordability as well as safety and effectiveness.”
 
Consumers Union selected Minnesota to be an outreach state because of its leadership in providing quality, affordable health care to residents, as well as the MSF’s extensive ties to the target community, said Gail Shearer, project director of Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs. The addition of the state’s largest physician group will make Minnesota’s outreach effort one of the most comprehensive in the nation, Shearer said.
 
 “We hope to level the playing field for consumers who are confused by all the advertisements for prescription drugs, and empower them to make informed decisions with their doctor,” Shearer said.
The information is especially critical to Medicare Part D beneficiaries, Shearer said, who face paying the full cost of their medications if they hit the “doughnut hole” – the gap in the prescription drug coverage.
 
“Unbiased information about effective, safe and affordable medicine is especially important to Medicare beneficiaries, especially those who are paying the full cost of their drugs when they fall into the feared coverage gap,” Shearer said.
 

Thirteen classes of drugs are currently analyzed at www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org, including medicines to treat asthma, hay fever, migraine headaches, high cholesterol, arthritis pain, heart disease and high blood pressure, menopause, ADHD and Alzheimer’s disease. The information on drug effectiveness is derived from the Drug Effectiveness Review Project (DERP) at the Oregon Health and Science University Evidence-based Practice Center. The DERP project compiles drug effectiveness data for states to use in shaping prescription drug coverage choices for Medicaid programs.  The CR Best Buy Drugs project is funded by grants from the Engelberg Foundation and the National Libraries of Medicine.

The focus on the Minnesota Senior Federation collaboration with the Minnesota Medical Association will be to focus not only on educating consumers but providing doctors with increased, easily assessable, resources for prescribing effective medications.

• Education campaign to physicians being undertaken by the Minnesota Medical Association,
  
• Posters in physician clinic examining rooms encourage patients to seek the most effective medications (quality, safety, and cost) trough talking to their physicians and utilizing the Consumer Reports Best Buy Drug Program
  
• Incorporation of CR-BBD information on Epcorates® and other PDA systems for use by physicians
  
• Developing and piloting CR-BBD kiosks in clinic offices using touch screen technology to access and print the latest CR-BBD information about particular classes of medications.
  
• Expansion of MSF consumer education efforts on drug cost savings and effectiveness utilizing CR-BBD materials.
  
• Community Presentation not only about the Consumer Reports Best Buy Drug Program but other ways to save on prescription drug costs.
  
• Distribution of copies of the two page reports on each category of drugs reviewed by the Consumer Reports Best Buy Drug program.

Related Links:
 
Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs website: http://www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org
 
Minnesota Consumers Union Prescription for Change website - http://www.mnprescriptionforchange.org
 
Minnesota Senior Federation Prescription Drug Importation Program - http://mnseniors.org/content/view/332/64/
 
Eight Ways to Cut Prescription Drug Costs - http://mnseniors.org/content/view/162/64/
 
Consumer Issues in paying for prescription drugs -
http://mnseniors.org/content/view/332/64/
 
RxPrice Compare – Minnesota State Prescription Drug Shopping Comparison website – http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/home.do?agency=Rx