T H E R U T G E R S A M C P T I M E S

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Letter from the Editors

Hello!

Hopefully everyone was able to enjoy the much-needed Spring Break. Whether you went to the Caribbean and got a nice tan or just stayed home, hopefully you were able to recharge and are now ready to finish the rest of the semester!

The school year is almost over but reflecting back on the past events that AMCP has held, we believe that there were many opportunities for you to participate in and be active. The Patient Outreach Trainings took place for the upcoming Asthma Clinic, the upcoming Clifton Health Fair, and the Carteret Temple Health Fair. Additionally, our annual Pharmacy Speed Networking Event took place, in which students were able to interact with pharmacists from different fields in

industry. Lastly, we would like to thank all of the participants of the P&T Competition and would like to

congratulate Delong Cen, Lisa Chen, Patrick Liu and Jonathan Rosen for placing into nationals and representing Rutgers at San Francisco this year!

Again, we would like to show our deepest gratitude to

our AMCP E-board for working hard on projects and events to make this year another great success. We would also like to thank our advisor, Dr. Jan, and diplomat, Dr. Alison Handler and all the residents for the help they have provided thus far.

Thank you once again for taking the time to read our newsletter. All of our newsletters, events and pictures are available for viewing on our website at rutgersamcp.weebly.com.

If you have any more questions or comments for our newsletter, please email ruamcpnews@gmail.com. Be sure to keep following each of our newsletters. Thanks!

Sincerely,

Your AMCP Editors

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AMCP Calendar of Events

Spring 2012

� April 10, 2012 / 6:40pm:

AMCP E-board elections

� April 15, 2012 / 8am-12pm:

AMCP/AZO/�CPA/SHPhA

collaboration: Clifton Health Fair

� April 22, 2012 /

Cateret Temple Health Fair

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Current Events • 2/29/12 - The FDA recently approved the

first influenza vaccine that covers four

strains of flu. AstraZeneca’s

MedImmune unit developed the FluMist

Quadrivalent which protects against two

strains of influenza A and two strains of

influenza B.

• 2/29/12 - AT&T and Intuit Health are

collaborating to send data from personal

health devices to healthcare providers

wirelessly with the goal of decreasing

hospitalization and health care costs.

Still in the testing phases, this project

hopes to decrease hospitalizations from

congestive heart failure, diabetes and

asthma, which combined, account for

over 80% of inpatient stays.

• 2/1/12 - Pfizer recalled 28 lots of oral

contraceptive Lo/Ovral-28 norgestrel

and ethinyl estradiol as well as their

generics in a packaging mix-up.

Placebos were accidentally packaged

and distributed at one of the

manufacturing centers.

General �ews

• 01/12 - Approximately half of 200 drugs

have been removed by the FDA from

the REMS program. Drugs have been

reclassified based on their requirements

such as a need for a Medication Guide

and/or a risk communication plan.

Year in Review - 2011

• For 2011, the FDA approved 37 new

molecular entities, vaccines and blood

products for marketing as opposed to

only 29 the year before. Some areas that

these drugs cover include cancer, CNS,

venom and viruses.

• Drug shortages continue to threaten the

nation as more and more critical drugs

have become harder to obtain. 178 drugs

have been acknowledged by the FDA in

2010 to be in short supply for unknown

reasons. These numbers have increased

in 2011 even though action has been

taken.

• All news featured above were taken from Pharmacy

Choice. All items are in relative order.

AMCP P&T

COMPETITION

BRINGS GREAT

INSIGHT

This year, the AMCP (Academy of Managed Care

Pharmacy) Pharmacy and Therapeutics competition focused on the

drug Dabigatran Etexilate, otherwise known as Pradaxa ®.

Working in teams of four, students were evaluated on their ability

to simulate the process that a pharmacy and therapeutics committee

would undergo to prepare a well-informed drug recommendation

for an institution such as a health plan.

AMCP and Boehringer Ingleheim provided the dossier for

the drug product and students were expected to analyze it,

alongside any additional relevant information given, such as

clinical trials and pharmacoeconomic analyses. The expectation

was that in the end, all knowledge gleaned from such research

would serve as a basis for creating a monograph and a presentation

of each teams’ final conclusions to the respective health plan, as

well as for answering any questions such an organization may

pose.

I am currently a first professional year student who

decided to participate in this competition purely for the experience.

Being a younger student, I was not even sure I wanted to

participate in the P& T competition at first. After having done so, I

am grateful for the experience. Realistically, the entire experience

can be described with interwoven pros and cons. [Continued on page 2]

By Claire Liu

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AMCP P&T COMPETITION

BRINGS GREAT INSIGHT

courses like pharmacoeconomics and get a taste

of the pharmaceutical world, the knowledge we

gleaned from the P&T competition has helped

us understand relevant concepts explained in

class. Also, my team was selected as one of the

four finalist groups so we were given the

opportunity to present our decision to a board

consisting of professors. Though nerve-racking,

it was great to practice our presentation skills in

front of and to interact with such knowledgeable

professionals.

Overall, I really enjoyed the entire

experience; even the in-depth scrutiny of our

drug recommendation and the targeted

questioning that followed our presentation. It

really made clear to me how much my team and

I had learned in the course of a single winter

break. In fact, I am immensely proud of how

much everyone who participated in the P&T

competition accomplished. There is a lot of

work that goes into preparing a monograph;

however, the experience is one that may be hard

to parallel in any other manner than

participating in the competition again. For

anyone who is interested in getting involved in

AMCP or the pharmacy school in general, I

suggest taking advantage of this opportunity

and experiencing what P&T is really all about.

[…Continued from page 1]

Firstly, I wish I could say the whole

project was easy, but that would be completely off

the mark. In fact, it was truthfully no small task.

My three teammates and I are P1’s, so we were

only beginning to build our health literacy. We

were unable to foresee the difficulty that we would

experience understanding the extensive

terminology and concepts that are used in dossiers

and pharmocoeconomic analyses. AMCP provided

guidelines suggesting that all research for the

project should require an average of 30 hours in

addition to the time needed to complete required

materials for submission. My team spent a major

part of that time purely on understanding the

terminology required to do the research, a

frustrating and seemingly never-ending process.

More specifically, the idea of QALYs, cost

effectiveness, formularies, prior authorizations and

even just the concept of what a monograph is, was

confusing. If we were not all P1’s, the process

may have been much faster since an older student

could probably explain concepts in a shorter

amount of time than that which my team had to

invest in research and self-learning.

On the other hand, because my entire

team’s members were self-chosen and not

assigned, we were all friends and, therefore,

understood each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Hence, we were able to work cohesively without

suffering the restraint of unfamiliarity preventing

us from speaking our minds. Again because we

were all P1 students, we shared the exact same

”level” of understanding and therefore could work

together in grasping the concepts in front of us.

Simply speaking, any shame or fear of revealing a

lack of knowledge was absent in our group.

Furthermore, though it was unpleasant to dive

headfirst into an endless sea of knowledge, it was

well worth it. In fact, as we begin to finally take

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Provost Molloy as our key speakers.

The formal portion of the event,

following all the introductions, included eight

rounds of six-minute networking sessions

between students and pharmacy professionals,

whom were separated by

affiliation (community, hospital, industry, etc).

Through these sessions, students were given an

opportunity to deliver their “elevator speech,”

work on their networking skills and gain

exposure to the different paths of pharmacy.

Unlike past years, in which the ratio of students

to pharmacists was 2:1 or 3:1, this year, we

gave students an opportunity for a more

intimate setting with a 1:1 ratio.

After very meaningful discussions

during the sessions, the professionals and

students had a chance to continue their

interactions without any time restraint. This

allowed students to take advantage of the

second portion of the event by expanding upon

the conversations they had previously.

The growing interest from all the parties

involved and the success of the event push us to

make the Speed Networking a bigger and better

event. Thus, we have already begun planning

for 2013. Next year, the event will take place on

February 7, 2013 in the Busch Multi Purpose

Room so mark your calendars!

“What is the Speed Networking Event?”

students would ask me. I would explain that the

event is geared toward connecting students at the

Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy with our highly

successful alumni and other professionals in the

tri-state area. I could attest to the fact that by

attending the event, one could tremendously

improve his or her networking skills. I can also

state that the connections formed and the topics

discussed during the speed networking rounds can

take a student a long way towards becoming a

better professional.

Although, all of the above is true, one

thing is for certain. The Speed Networking event

was something that started as an idea three years

ago; however, it has grown to become a real

tradition at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.

Moreover, other schools have replicated the event

as well. Students are excited to attend due to the

prospect of meeting pharmacists from different

fields of our profession. Equally, professionals are

eager to come to this event to share their

experiences with students and network among

themselves. Furthermore, the school

administration fully supports the event since it

brings more exposure to the school itself and gives

the alumni an opportunity to come back.

Usually held on Busch Campus, the 3rd

Annual AZO/AMCP Speed Networking Event

took place at the newly renovated Livingston

Campus on March 7th, 2012. With the help of

Rutgers faculty, participating pharmacists and our

sponsors, Novartis and Pfizer, we were able to

have a very successful event. The event was

introduced to the student body with a short video

introduction about the importance of acquiring

networking skills. Moreover, the Speed

Networking event featured Dean Barone and

SPEED NETWORKING

PROVIDES REWARDING

OPPORTUNITIES

By Claire Liu

By Kyrill Petrosyan