 
|
|||||||||
              
|
Flavoring system helps the medicine go down
Tuesday, March 23, 1999 By Virginia Linn, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Is that yucky tasting medicine hard to swallow? Now there are scores of locations in the Pittsburgh area where you can turn that unpleasant taste of Robitussin cough medicine into chocolate syrup, NyQuil into pina colada, or even amoxicillin into orange cremesicle. Not to mention flavoring medicine for your pet iguana with watermelon, or for Fido, vanilla butternut and caramel.
More than 100 Giant Eagle in-store pharmacies are providing FLAVORx, a special system that changes the taste of prescription and over-the-counter liquid medicine into 42 succulent flavors for children, adults and pets. Until now, this service has only been offered by a handful of independent drug stores in the region.
Giant Eagle is the first local chain, and only the second in the country, to provide this system, developed by an independent father-son pharmacist team in Washington D.C. as a way of staying competitive with the big guys.
When Harold Kramm and his son Kenny began marketing the system in 1995, they provided it only to small independents who were struggling to keep pace with the chains that could sell drugs and other products at cheaper prices. But in some areas of the country, there were so few independents left, that some people were driving one or two hours to find drug stores that offered the service.
"We gave the independents a three-year jump," said Kenny Kramm in a telephone interview from his Center Pharmacy in Washington. "We wanted to fill in the gaps in areas that didn't have many stores."
Giant Eagle approached the Kramms hoping to obtain contracts for FLAVORx in the Pittsburgh area and started offering it at the end of last year. FLAVORx is now available in 900 stores in the United States. It will be introduced in New Zealand next month and in Australia later this spring, Kramm said.
But the expansion of FLAVORx to Giant Eagle doesn't shut out the independents that have been offering the special flavoring here, Kramm said. Under contract agreements, the supermarket cannot offer FLAVORx in stores that are in the same area where an independent has the service. As a result, the flavoring is only available in 109 of its 120 pharmacies; although the pet flavoring is offered in all stores, said Randy Heiser, Giant Eagle vice president of pharmacy.
"We've gotten very positive reaction from physicians and patients," Heiser said about the flavoring system. "They seem very pleased. It's helped more kids take medication and that's one of the main reasons we wanted this."
One of the first independent stores locally to offer FLAVORx was Community Drug in Greenfield in 1996. Owner David Hairhoger said his store used the system as a first step in tailoring medicines for his customers. His store has gone on to specialize in compounding and has developed its own, more sophisticated flavoring service that also includes pet medicines. Since he began marketing his compounded drugs on the Internet, business has increased to the point that he's expanding his pharmacy staff.
Although Hairhoger no longer contracts with FLAVORx, he said its availability in Giant Eagles should help his store and other independents that offer special flavoring. "It will make it more aware that we do these things," he said.
Kenny Kramm, 37, started experimenting with changing the flavor of liquid drugs after one of his children, who suffered from seizures, refused to take the bad-tasting medicine. The better-tasting medicine worked, he said.
Here's how FLAVORx works:
Children - or adults - can select their favorite flavor from a menu, similar to a list in an ice cream shop. After the medicine is prepared in the chosen flavor, each child receives a compliance chart to check off each dose of medicine as it's taken. The child then returns the chart to the pharmacy for a prize. In Giant Eagle's case, it's a certificate for a free video rental.
Pharmacists across the country set their own price for the special flavoring, which usually averages $3 or so, Kramm said.
The flavorings at Giant Eagle cost an additional $2.99 with a store Advantage Card or $3.99 without.
The Kramms are about to introduce 18 new flavors, including blueberry-raspberry punch, peaches and cream and orange cremesicle.
Bubblegum is the most popular flavor among children - worldwide, Kramm said.
Pharmacists are getting more requests from adults, too. Several over-the-counter liquid medications - Robitussin, Robitussin DM, Dimetapp DM, NyQuil and Tylenol Cold can taste bitter, or just plain bad.
Even medications that come in grape or cherry may be too sweet or strong for some people. The pharmacists can neutralize that flavor and change it to butterscotch, peppermint stick, licorice or even coffee.
Kramm said many requests for special flavoring come from nursing homes, where the older patients can no longer handle pills. A good taste is important for patients taking five or six liquid medications a day.
For pets, the system provides 16 flavors such as beef, peanut butter, banana cream, watermelon, maple and licorice. While the flavoring for humans is limited to liquid medicine, the pharmacists are able to ground pills for pets into liquid for flavoring.
"People have as much problems giving their pets medications as their children," Kramm said. "I had one lady who found 42 pills under her couch, her pet was spitting them out."
The pet flavorings are not limited to medicines for cats and dogs. Horses like molasses and licorice; and rabbits, celery flavor, he said. Their flavor chart lists the favorites for hamsters, ferrets, pigs and other animals.
Dogs favor beef, cheese, marshmallow and molasses; cats, tuna, other fish flavors and liver. (Hairhoger over at Community Drug in Greenfield has concocted his own feline special: Triple Fish - tuna, salmon and sardines.)
Kramm taste-tests all the flavors made for humans, but refuses to test the animal flavors. "They have some of the foulest-smelling flavors. You can't tell from a human what an animal will like. You just have to try them out and see which ones they like the best."
|
||||||||
