Free antibiotics may have high cost later.(Drug Safety) - Adverse Event Reporting News

Offering free antibiotics to cash-strapped customers may have seemed like a good idea this dire winter, but supermarket chains are fielding a backlash from health experts who say the promotions may do more harm than good, MSNBC.com reported March 5.

Five large retailers have received letters from the federal Centers for Disease Control and the Infectious Diseases Society of America cautioning that giving away antibiotics contributes to misuse of medication and the rise of increasingly drug-resistant bugs.

'We were a little alarmed, especially when they suggested they'd be doing it during cold and flu season,' said Lauri Hicks, medical director of the CDC's program on appropriate antibiotic use.

'We know that antibiotics aren't effective for cold and flu. We don't want to perpetuate the idea that they are.'

But the stores, which include Wegmans, ShopRite, Stop and Shop and Giant Food, contend they're only filling valid prescriptions written by doctors--and trying to save shoppers a little money in the process.

However, offering free antibiotics likely will prompt more patients to ask their doctors for the drugs, experts said. Repeated research shows that doctors often prescribe antibiotics just because a patient asks. A study published last fall in the 'British Medical Journal' showed that some doctors use antibiotics as placebos for patients who insist on medication.

'It's much easier to give someone an antibiotic than it is to explain to someone why they don't need it,' said Ed Septimus, M.D., an internist who helped write the letters sent by the IDSA.

Giant Food is one of several retailers that launched free-drug giveaways this winter, providing up to two weeks of the most frequently prescribed antibiotics, including amoxicillin, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin and penicillin. The offer is available to anyone with a prescription whether they have health insurance or not.

A typical round of antibiotics costs $10 to $20, though many stores have started offering $4 generic prescriptions.

Most of the stores planned to continue offering the drugs through the end of this month, if not longer. Some grocery chains, such as Meijer of Grand Rapids, MI, and Publix Super Markets of Lakeland, FL, have offered the free meds year-round for several years.

Other experts contend that the stores' motives aren't completely altruistic because they're using the free drugs as so-called 'loss leaders' to attract new customers.

'They're buying these drugs for pennies and they're getting people into the store to buy things they can make money on,' said Septimus.

Even when they do need the drugs, the free programs may influence patient demand. When Lisa Samples' husband, James, needed an antibiotic for a bad case of bronchitis this week, the 42-year-old Dallas, GA, woman asked the doctor to prescribe something from the free list at her local Publix supermarket.