$112,000 Is Spent Locally for Medicines Action being taken

$112,000 Is Spent

Locally for Medicines

Action being taken by two government agencies concerned with consumer protection is expected to affect many of the medications now being sold in Rappahannock County. The Federal Drug Administration, in cooperation with the Federal Trade Commission, is moving to bar from the market a large number of drugs that it considers to be of no medical value.

The action is based upon, evaluations, by the National Academy of Sciences, of more than 3,000 drugs that are in common use.

It judged about 10 percent of them to be ineffective for what they were intended. They will be ordered off the market. Various other medications will have to be relabeled to limit their claims to conditions for which they are really effective.

Residents of Rappahannock County, who are spending more than they ever did for pharmaceuticals, have a vital interest in these proceedings. Their purchases of drugs are estimated at $112,000 a year, on the strength of regional data gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics. Included in this total arc medications proscribed by physicians as well as the pills, salves, nose drops and other products that are sold without prescriptions. On the average, the survey shows, people living in Rappahannock County’s geographical region spend about $22.80 per capita annually for medical supplies. This compares with an avet» age of $21 per person in other parts of the country. Approximatey $17.50 of the local expenditure is for prescription drugs and the other $5.30 for non-prescription. The cost of medicines has b^en rising steadily, the stuuies show. So has per capi ta consumption, especially in the upper age groups. The over-65 portion of the population spends about $50.20 a year for drugs per person, according to a PublicHealth Service report.