Las Vegas pharmacy sends drugs

Friday, Jan. 14, 2005 | 10:49 a.m.

A Las Vegas pharmacy is shipping part of an estimated 13 million doses of generic medicines to victims of the earthquake and tsunami that swept across Asia and the east coast of Africa.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman joined employees at Medco Health Solutions Inc. Las Vegas Dispensing Pharmacy on the 6200 block of Annie Oakley Drive today to load the first pallets of the medicines.

More than nine million doses on 18 pallets will be shipped from Las Vegas.

"A donation of this magnitude is extraordinary," Goodman said. "Medco exemplifies the generosity of our community and the desire to assist the millions of victims affected by this natural disaster."

To ensure the medicine shipments reach those in need, Medco became a partner with AmeriCare, a Stamford, Conn.-based nonprofit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization that since 1982 has delivered more than $4 billion in medical relief supplies to more than 137 countries.

"We are truly appreciative of Medco's generosity at this critical time," Curtis R. Welling, president and CEO of AmeriCares, said.

Medco's drugs will provide life-saving medication to millions of people without clean water or safe sanitary conditions, making them at increasing risk of contracting infectious diseases, Welling said.

Medco has two automated dispensing pharmacies in Las Vegas and Willingboro, N.J. Remaining medications will be shipped from the company's Ohio pharmacy.

"Our hearts extend out to the millions of victims," chief Medco pharmacist Roger Anderson said. "With a disaster of such scale and magnitude, governments, corporations and individuals worldwide have been moved to provide assistance on many levels."

AmeriCare has already shipped more than 30,000 pounds of supplies to the affected regions.

"The immediate destruction and death are tragic beyond description, but unfortunately just the beginning of the health care challenge," Dr. Robert Epstein, Medco's chief medical officer, said.

The company will consider additional donations as needs are identified, Epstein said.