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Jan 22, 2015 a 1:01 am PST
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Fred Ganjian Nov 3, 2016 a 2:58 pm PDT
Response From Bryant Ranch PrePack by Robert Mernick, President.
We were quite concerned over the impression made by your blog posted under the title “Unsafe Production Standards, Kickbacks Checker Past of some Repackagers”
We have made great efforts to operate ethically over the last 12 years and for the 20 years before that when our repackaging activities took place within some of my pharmacies. Our excellent regulatory record, and our insistence to operate under a gold standard of regulation(as defined by VAWD) demonstrates our company’s commitment to public health. We are proud to put the patient first rather than focus on higher profits, and our record of compliance clearly shows our willingness to do whatever we can to sustain and promote better patient care. We are the only repackager to require a pharmacy technician license for any employee who handles pharmaceuticals, so that when physicians dispense them to their patients they can be sure of the medication they dispense.
In my opinion, your reporting was neither fair nor professional.
Our company does not contribute, set, advise, or in any way determine or help determine what insurance companies pay doctors for dispensing. Our company only provides product, custom labels, and clinic software to physicians for them to dispense to their patients. We fill physician’s orders for pharmaceuticals packaged under FDA guidelines, so that the physician can make medication available to their patents as part of their care giving.
Distribution to doctors who participate in the workers compensation system makes up a small minority of our sales. The majority of our services are to pediatricians, urgent health care providers, orthopedics and many other specialties. The common thread running through all the specialties is that the patients want to go home rather than spend an hour waiting for their medication at a chain pharmacy.
I have always personally been against any type of malfeasance within our industry and have sought to run my business accordingly. In addition I have spoken out publicly in the New York Times against physicians and third party management companies manipulating the system in order to inflate compensation to doctors. This public stance has caused us to lose customers. At the end of the day we simply fill doctor’s orders for pharmaceuticals. I personally think it is laziness on the side of insurance companies that has created an environment in which some doctors can take unfair advantage of them.
Bryant Ranch Prepack is a very ethical company. I take offense at your articles’ portrayal of our company and our practices and find the evidence lacking and misrepresented. In your article you cite an FDA letter to us which requested certain changes to our processing. Every FDA licensed manufacturer has received a letter from the FDA requesting changes in process. In order to meet and exceed the highest level of regulatory adherence, which Bryant Ranch Prepack is proud to say it achieves, it takes a constant collaboration and line of communication with regulatory bodies. If you had taken the time to read the second response, which was dated in 2010, you would have seen the issues with the FDA were completely settled. Specifically, the FDA requested that we stop packaging penicillin and cephalosporin in the same facility as the other medications. Despite the fact that we had a separate room, operating under negative air pressure and with a totally separate air handling system, we accepted the FDA’s request.
To sum up: I believe you have printed a poorly researched portrayal of our company that demonstrates bias and prejudicial thinking. We ask that you retract it and I personally invite you to visit our facility to see how we operate.