By Tucker Sutherland, editor
April 10, 2005 - We have published
several news releases by the maker of the new sleep aid, Lunesta,
saying the prescription medicine is available nationwide. The
latest ran on Thursday (see box) but we are still getting complaints that it
cannot be found. This is an email from a reader on Friday:
|
Related Story |
|
|
Lunesta: New Insomnia Drug Now Available in
Most Pharmacies, Company Says
Information to SeniorJournal.com says clinical trials
prove value of long-term use for senior citizens
By Tucker Sutherland, editor
April 7, 2005 There has been general confusion
about the availability of the new prescription sleep aid, Lunesta, that
was approved by the FDA late last year but has been slow to reach the
market. The company, Sepracor, Inc., issued a news release today saying
it is now available in most pharmacies nationwide. Many senior citizen
insomnia suffers have been eager for the non-narcotic drug that is the
first sleep aid approved for long-term use.
Read more...
|
|
In spite of Sepracor's
claims that this drug is available nationwide, it is not. None
of the 3 major pharmacy chains in Chicago have this drug in
their stores as of 4/8/05 nor is the drug listed as available
through their warehouses. A telephone call to a Walgreen's
pharmacy in Sepracor's home city of Marlborough , Mass produced
the same response - not in stock and not available. Perhaps
this will be corrected in the near future but as of Friday am
even if your physician has written a prescription for this
medication, getting it poses an interesting exercise in problem
solving.
But, later Friday another wrote: "I had no problem finding it at
www.Walgreens.com."
Then in an interesting contrast, we got this message
on Saturday..."My Walgreens pharmacy (Sebastian, Florida) claims that
Lunesta is not available from the manufacturer.
But, a savy senior searched Yahoo for "buy Lunesta"
and found 2,160 Websites.
We have contacted the
company and their public relations agency for answers and will
let you know the latest.
Most likely there are a number of things causing the
confusion, including personnel just not getting the word, all the
computer inventories not updated and a heavy demand.
