The reason for the waste is that many patients use fewer medicines than they received from the pharmacy, for example because of side effects or because the medicine does not work well. During the trial, the researchers, together with three hospitals, want to prevent these medicines from ending up in the bin.
“You could just give a lot of unused medicines to another patient. But current legislation does not allow that,” says Radboud researcher Charlotte Bekker. One today. “The risk that a medicine will no longer work properly or is not properly stored in a home situation is considered too great.”
Special packaging
The researchers have found a solution to overcome that. “We have come up with special packaging for cancer medicines. You can immediately see whether the packaging is completely closed and there are temperature sensors that warn if a medicine has been stored too hot or too cold,” says the researcher.
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After checking in the pharmacy, these expensive medicines can then be safely given to another patient. Bekker and her colleagues hope to start providing these cancer medicines in the autumn. For this they have applied for an exception to existing legislation.
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