Unused Prescription Drugs and the Uninsured

Connecting unused drugs, uninsured patients, By Victoria Colliver, March 2, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle: “Seven years ago, a group of Stanford students realized that a tremendous amount of medicine was being wasted and that it could help uninsured patients. Their idea has grown into a nonprofit that helps health care centers and drug companies donate unused prescriptions to pharmacies that then supply uninsured patients. In redistributing the medicines, the startup – Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine, or Sirum – not only helps those needy and poor patients but reduces the environmental hazards of incinerating or otherwise destroying the unexpired drugs. An estimated $9 billion in unused medicine and medical supplies is wasted in the United States every year. California destroys about $100 million worth of usable drugs each year. At the same time, about a third of uninsured Californians routinely forgo prescription drugs because of the cost…”