First of all, Show your Pharmacist that we are essential in the practice.   Good Pharmacists who advocate for us are key. There is no doubt we would loose the battle without them.

Moving on, A National Exam and Certification/CE should be required to work in this role in all 50 states.  That exam only being taken at the completion of an accredited education program.  And abolish those shady diploma mills and programs that charge inflated prices and make promises of unrealistic salaries and job growth.

The Pharmacy Technician has the potential to grow into a tried and true Paraprofession.  We lack the recognition as a trained and educated staff member. This will never happen without legislation on state and national levels that regulate their education a training.

Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians have both State and National bodies that oversee their education, training, and licensee.  And while I know little about that profession, it seems that these boards have struck an nice balance to maintain the minimum National standards of the NHTSA and the states still have individual freedom to regulate farther how they see fit.  The Boards of Pharmacy, resisting all lobbies from large corporations, should enact a similar method with stronger minimums. The training programs designed by the large chain pharmacies do nothing more than train their employees just enough to pass muster and are simplistic enough that a tech who relies solely on their training could never advance any farther on that alone. These should not be recognized by the boards as an adequate training model. An organization such as the PTCB needs to be in charge of a uniform testing model, and be enacted in all states.

Speaking of salaries, as much as it pains me to say this, we need to stop using how much we should make as a talking point.  Nobody in this profession is in it because of the money, and we will never become rich doing it.  That’s just reality. The only thing we should be pushing for at this point is a living wage. too many of us hover around or below the poverty line. While it’s unrealistic to imagine a world where every tech who puts on a lab coat will make more than half of what the Pharmacist makes, for the work that we do, we deserve the compensation that will allow us to live. Minimum wage is not a living wage.  Above that we need to move on to our other focus, and not appear greedy to those we are trying to convince.

Activism is the way to obtain it, and apathy will only hurt us.  If you are satisfied punching in and punching out and nothing more, we will never prevail. Join grassroots organizations. Write your congressmen. Attend board meetings and learn how the system works. And GET INVOLVED.

So, for all the Pharmacy Technicians that see this site, we say Thank You.  Tell us how you celebrated today.  Post in the comments, or the forums. Share pictures if you can.  Take pride in your career.

For more information on Pharmacy Technician Day and to learn more about the career, visit The National Pharmacy Technician Association.  You may also watch the video in the sidebar.

Just around 8 years and 9 months ago, I was faced with having to carefully craft a plan for the rest of my life. Sometimes it does not go as planned.

I was soon graduating from college, and was told by my girlfriend that she was pregnant.  And after a day of sheer panic, I had to start thinking.  3 months down the line I would be a graduate. 7 months later I would be a father. It was time to start job hunting.

After doing my final internship, I got my diploma in Multimedia and Web Design.  I had a number of promising offers and job leads in some metropolitan areas, but after talking with my partner, we decided it was best to move to the country where she was raised and have the baby there.  The support of her family was essential to our survival as young parents. I was only 20 years old.

Work there in my field was nonexistent and I was not too keen on the idea of spending 4 hours a day on a train commuting to the city. Especially since i would have an infant at home.  So I took a job managing an independent movie theater while I did freelance work on the side.

The theater gig was great. I got paid to talk about movies to the customers. Often times, i would be discussing a film with a customer who themselves were actors in that very movie.

Of course, with that job came long weekends and holidays. My son’s first Christmas, I worked. Easter, I worked.  You get the picture.  So I began looking for a job that would more suit my need to be home with the family on such important days.

The mother of my son’s babysitter was working for the pharmacy at the time.  One day in conversation I brought up my new job hunt and she suggested I come in for an interview, and I got the job.

I started with the mindset that it was just a paycheck. Punch in, Punch out. Weekends and holidays off. And soon i realized that it takes more than that to do this job right.  And to top it off, I liked it. It was challenging to step into a role with no experience to thrive and succeed.

So for over 5 years I have worked as a Pharmacy Technician, became Certified, and set a new standard within the company on what is expected to be a Pharmacy Technician for our independent chain (to brag a little).  I’ve become to realize the potential for grown in this career and I support techs who want to become certified and work to become more than “just a tech”.  I’ve transferred my love for technology into becoming a respected consultant on our pharmacy’s use of technology and the internet to improve productivity and business. It’s an amazing feeling. Knowing that my work at this company is appreciated and needed.

Taking on this website was another thing. I was an active poster on the PTCB.org message board community, and when that disappeared I wanted to make something to fill that void. I got a degree in this stuff.. i figured i could do something.

I bought some server space and put up forum.cphtlink.com.  Though it is no where near as successful and active as the other deceased message board, it still offered some fun, random, and informative conversation.  Then the main page evolved into a place for me to share an article or two. Some weeks are slow in news, and some are better.  I’d like to thank everyone continues to vist it.

Yesterday, my son turned 8 years old.  I still remember the gamut of feelings while expecting and the highs and lows that followed in fatherhood.  From the first day of school, to the separation of parents and custody.  Getting though personal life challenges and coming to work focused on patient care and customer service.   Becoming a better person and employee is all because of the nature of the job; the need to be focused and together when someone’s life is, for all intents and purposes, in the hands of the pharmacist.  Being part of that team.

I still do my freelance whenever I can, but now when people ask me what I do I proudly include CPhT in my answer.

So I ask the techs that read this…Why did you become a Pharmacy Technician? Leave a Comment, or post on the forums. I always love to hear from others.

And Happy Birthday, Joshua. This kid is my life. I’m lucky to be a single father who gets to spend nearly every free moment with my son. He’s funny, unique, and the best thing that ever happened to me.

NPTA’s Pharmacy Technician Certificate Program™ is comprised of nine online courses and practical hands-on experience obtained through local pharmacy externships. The program, which is self-paced, is equivalent to roughly 750 contact hours and can be completed in six to twelve months, depending upon the student’s schedule.

In particular, students will learn the principles of pharmaceutical care, pharmacy law, community pharmacy practice, institutional pharmacy practice, pharmacy calculations and pharmacology. Upon completion of the program, students will be prepared to work in retail pharmacy environments, such as CVS®, Walgreens® and Rite-Aid®, hospital pharmacies, nursing homes, long-term care facilities and numerous other facilities.

“The pharmacy technician career path is quickly evolving and is in great demand across the United States,” said Mike Johnston, CPhT, Chairman and CEO of NPTA. “This program makes perfect sense for individuals who are looking to get into the healthcare industry and experience greater job opportunity and security, especially in the current economic climate.”

Affordability was a primary goal for NPTA, who wants to ensure that any qualified candidate interested in becoming a pharmacy technician has the opportunity to do so. The tuition for NPTA’s Pharmacy Technician Certificate Program™ is a fraction of the fees charged by career colleges and other online programs. Additionally, NPTA offers an interest-free payment plan for students and provides all textbooks and training materials in the tuition fee.

Since 1999, the National Pharmacy Technician Association has been the leader in pharmacy technician education and training since 1999 and NPTA’s Pharmacy Technician Certificate Program™ will make a huge difference for individuals with limited budgets, time constraints and provides unmatched credibility for entering the profession.

For more information on becoming a pharmacy technician through NPTA’s online training program, go to www.pharmacytechnician.org/institute or call 1-888-247-8700.

The Task Force recommended, and the NABP Executive Committee approved, that NABP amend the Model Act to a recommendation that all boards of pharmacy require pharmacy technicians to be certified by 2015, in accordance with the JCPP Future Vision of Pharmacy Practice.

Technician accountability is vital for a new vision of pharmacy practice and new roles for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Part of ensuring that pharmacy technicians meet such standards is the implementation of a standard measure of competency. Toward this end, under the advisement of the task force and the approval of the Executive Committee, NABP encourages the boards of pharmacy to require certification by the PTCB. These announcements were released at NABP’s annual meeting held last week.

The Task Force’s recommendation to certify all pharmacy technicians using the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam (PTCE) comes at a time when the demand for technician competency through uniform standards has never been greater. A 2007 poll commissioned by PTCB showed that 91% of American consumers surveyed support strong regulations across the country to protect patient safety by requiring that pharmacy technicians be trained and certified.

“The task force’s latest encouragement of this standard reinforces PTCB’s place as the strongest certification program available for pharmacy technicians,” said Melissa Murer Corrigan, RPh, Executive Director and CEO of PTCB. “Having consistent requirements for pharmacy technician certification in every state is an important first step towards meeting the high standard of safety that patients expect and deserve.”

NABP has been at the center of developing, implementing, and enforcing uniform standards for states since 1904. NABP reviewed and approved the PTCE through Resolution 96-1-2000, which was adopted by the NABP member boards at the 96th Annual Meeting in 2000.

PTCB is currently the only certification program endorsed by NABP, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).
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For more information about certification, and technician standards visit www.ptcb.org and www.pharmacytechnician.org

The prescription drug was one of the top 5 prescribed brand names in the country with annual sales of $3.37 billion in 2008.

Prevacid 24HR is expected to be available over-the-counter later this year.

“We have already received proposals from people on behalf of countries in Latin America, Mexico and Israel,” the Mumbai-based company’s chief executive and joint managing director, Amar Lulla, was quoted as saying by Indian media.

“We have the capability to supply 1.5 million dosages of the drug within four to six weeks,” he added.

No approach had yet been made by either the World Health Organisation (WHO) or the Indian government, he added.

WHO on Monday raised its flu pandemic alert level from three to four amid global concern over swine flu. Mexico, the outbreak’s epicentre, has raised its probable death toll to 152 and cases have been confirmed across the world.

Cipla Limited is one of the big Indian drug firms that makes a generic version of Swiss group Roche’s Tamiflu to export to countries where it is not patented.

The Indian firm sells the drug at 1,000 rupees (20 dollars) for a 10-day course. Cipla and Ranbaxy supplied the antiviral drug to some Asian countries during the outbreak of bird flu in 2006.

“On March 23, 2009, a federal court issued an order directing the FDA, within 30 days, to permit the Plan B drug sponsor to make Plan B available to women 17 and older without a prescription. The government will not appeal this decision. In accordance with the court’s order, and consistent with the scientific findings made in 2005 by the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA notified the manufacturer of Plan B informing the company that it may, upon submission and approval of an appropriate application, market Plan B without a prescription to women 17 years of age and older.”

The product won’t become available to women of that age until the manufacturer of Plan B submits and receives approval for a labeling change

The new design includes easier navigation to current news, and new ways to interact with the organization and even directly with Mike Johnston CPhT (CEO) on various social networking websites.

Click over to www.pharmacytechnician.org and check it out.

Or so researchers hope.

A first trial of the polypill (which already has a brand name, Polycap), has been successful, according to a report that was to be presented Monday at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., and online in The Lancet.

The polypill contains generic versions of the blood pressure medications atenolol, hydrochlorothiazide and rampiril, as well as simvastatin (Zocor) and aspirin. It is designed to attack three major risk factors of cardiovascular disease — high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and formation of artery-blocking blood clots. It is being tested by an Indian company, Cadila Pharma.

The idea was originated by a group of physicians trained in India and now at McMaster University in Canada, said Dr. Koon Teo, a professor of medicine at McMaster and a member of the research team.

“We know that there are many medications that are beneficial,” Teo said. “But often people don’t like to take many pills, and doctors don’t give patients all the pills they might need.”

The first trial enrolled 2,053 people with one risk factor, such as high blood pressure, but no cardiovascular disease. They were divided into nine groups, one taking the polypill, the others various combinations of the medications.

The study, done at 50 centers in India, was designed to answer several questions:

Would the five-drug polypill deliver the same effect as individual pills? What reduction in blood pressure and cholesterol could it achieve? Would there be harmful interactions between the ingredients? Would aspirin reduce the blood-pressure-lowering effect?

The answers were favorable. The polypill reduced systolic blood pressure (the higher of the 120/80 reading) by 7.4 points and diastolic blood pressure by 5.6 points, better than the reduction produced by individual medications. LDL cholesterol reductions were almost as great as those produced by individual doses of simvastatin, the statin in the polypill. Readings showed a reduction in urinary levels of a clot-associated molecule. There was no indication of harmful interactions for those taking the polypill.

The blood pressure reduction caused by the polypill would lower the risk of heart disease by 24 percent and lower stroke risk by 33 percent, the researchers estimated. The cholesterol-lowering effect would reduce heart disease risk by 27 percent and stroke risk by 8 percent, they estimated.

And putting those benefits into one pill would increase the possibility that healthy people would actually take the medications needed to keep them healthy, they said.

“I think this is a good idea, in that even though all these drugs are available in separate pills, people don’t take them for lots of reasons — logistics, costs, availability,” said Dr. Christopher P. Cannon, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who wrote an accompanying commentary in The Lancet. “If one had a simple, inexpensive pill, it could open cardiovascular protection to many people.”

Millions of Americans who are at risk of cardiovascular disease because of common conditions, such as obesity and high blood pressure, are potential beneficiaries of a polypill, Cannon said. “They should be taking cardiovascular medications, but don’t, because they are otherwise healthy,” he said. “If there were one, simple pill, they might be open to taking it.”

More studies obviously are needed, Cannon said, and physician care would be necessary if the pill became available. “You can’t just give it and walk away,” he said. “You would have to monitor for side effects, but once you get past that hurdle, one simple pill would help.”

Some major regulatory changes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would be necessary for the polypill to be available in the United States, Cannon added. “The current mandates of the FDA are that a combination pill would have to be tested for every combination of every drug included in that pill. That obviously would not be feasible in this case. It would require a re-looking at the rules by the FDA, and for that, one needs larger and longer studies.”

Even with those hurdles to overcome, a polypill would be “a major step forward in trying to simplify and broaden the applicability of all the medications that reduce cardiovascular risk,” Cannon said.

The next step would be a major trial of the polypill among people with clear risk of cardiovascular disease, Teo said. If such a trial succeeded, the hope is that a drug company would pick up the idea, he said.

“The concept is important, and we are testing the concept,” Teo said. “Once the concept is proved, we hope that a company in Europe or the United States could see that something can be done with it.”