Giant Food pharmacies will fill antibiotic prescriptions for free this winter amid tough economic times for their customers, the company announced this week.
“This was our way to say, ‘We hear you, we understand what you are going through and we don’t want you to be without something you need,’ ” said Robin Michel, executive vice president and general manager of Landover-based Giant.
Through March 21, pharmacies will offer up to 14-day supplies of 36 varieties of common antibiotics, such as erythromycin, amoxicillin and penicillin.
The program www.giantfood.com/antibiotics was launched as a response to customers telling their pharmacists they were struggling to make ends meet, Michel said.
Michel said she doesn’t know how much the program will cost the company, saying the amount depends on how many people take advantage of the offer. Pharmacies have stocked extra supplies to meet the demand.
Local health care advocates lauded Giant’s move.
“They are into health care for people, and this is a great thing they are doing,” said Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative, which advocates for universal health care. He said Giant was a heavy supporter of the state’s recent Medicaid expansion.
Kevin Lindamood, spokesman for Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore, said the program “reduces barriers” for low-income residents and was a “good sign of corporate commitment to the community.”
In August 2007, Florida-based Publix Super Markets began offering free prescriptions of seven common antibiotics as a way to ease rising health care costs.
Michigan-based retailer Meijer launched a free antibiotics program in October 2006 and provided more than 1 million prescriptions in the first year, according to the company.
However, some experts have raised concerns about such programs. In a September 2007 statement, the Infectious Diseases Society of America said the move could pressure more physicians to prescribe antibiotics, which could lead to more resistance to antibiotics.
The organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent letters to the retailers calling for education campaigns on the use of antibiotics and the problems of antibacterial resistance.
“If there were no changes in how they were used [and] increasing that use, it wouldn’t be a problem,” said Dr. Sara Cosgrove, director of the antibiotic management program at Johns Hopkins Hospital. “But those antibiotics in general are overused already.”
Many common winter illnesses, such as sinusitis, are viral and don’t require antibiotics, she said.
These programs could devalue antibiotics, she said, putting them in the same category as aspirin or ibuprofen.
“From a societal standpoint,” Cosgrove said, “We don’t need to see more resistance to drugs like amoxicillin.”
