Minimizing pharmaceutical waste: The role of the pharmacist

Objective: To explore the knowledge, attitudes and practice of pharmacists about medication disposal and their awareness about potential environmental effects of inappropriate drug disposal. Materials and Methods: A prevalidated, structured questionnaire with both open- and close-ended questions was distributed to a random cohort of 150 pharmacists of an urban town of North India.The questionnaire assessed disposal of leftover and expired drugs by pharmacists and their knowledge of drug disposal by the distributors. The awareness of the correct method of drug disposal, ways to minimize the pharmaceutical waste and extent of dissemination of information about drug disposal to patients was also evaluated. Results: The response rate was 56%. Although majority of the pharmacies have a system to dispose expired and leftover drugs, the knowledge about disposal was found to be incomplete. Most of the leftover drugs belonging to different dosage forms were returned to the distributor. One-third pharmacists did not know the correct method to dispose drugs. Majority of them did not advise patients about disposal of unused drugs. Only 58% believed that improper drug disposal is intimately connected to environmental pollution. Conclusion: Pharmacists have new roles and responsibilities to function as collaborative members of healthcare team by disseminating information about correct ways to dispose unused drugs.