The pharmer cont'd:
Friend's friend of my uncle, a nice and thoughtful pharmacist. That's what I get from experienced pharmacists, they really know how to converse well with patients.
A not so good thing is He speaks L.Ng English. On the first day I couldn't figure out what he was talking about so eventually I decided to converse in canto instead. Sometimes he speaks really slowly like as if he forgets something but he's old so I guess I should have more patience. And I guess sometimes he really forgot his stuff so I let him finish his sentence and stop asking.
Not really chim questions that I asked, just asked about indications and stuff because there are alot of drugs there that they use for different purposes. There are tons of new drugs that the doctors let the patients try. About a week later, I then realize why the docs anyhow ask the patients to try new drugs.
Like everywhere in the world, doctors try to make more money by making patients come more often. So they let patients try new drugs and come back 2 weeks later to review the condition and see if there are any allergies.. bla bla bla... new drugs needs closer monitoring eh? what a good excuse.
On the other hand, it actually means good news for the pharmacy next door. Sometimes, the pharmacist don't even know what drugs are those so both of us get to learn something new everyday. haha and for the boss, new drugs means more profits because new drugs are patented and expensive.
The Drugs:
Some of the new drugs that I heard of / seen for those 2 weeks:
1) Flomax CR: relieve symptoms of polyuria, similar to tolteridine that sg uses. Usually for men but can be used for women.
2) All kinds of oestrogen preps: Studied alot on oestrogen preps ever since I got stuck at retail in sgh and I thought I have seen enough of those these. But no no, I haven't seen the patches and the vaginal rings and the extra few OCs for acne. Read a book on OCs at the pharmacy too and it was really informative. Sg should have more of these books instead of relying on pharmacists.
3) More inhalers. Although most people use salbutamol like in sg, they also use Flovent and Adavir (the powder inhaler). And they use Spiriva (tiotropium) too, the inhaler is slightly different from the rest. They probably have it in sg but I only seen it for the first time over here. :)
Like I've already said, most of the pills there come in bottles and since Apo brand is from canada, the whole shelf is full of blue cap white bottles. There is also other generic brands like ratio, novo, pms. Once in a while, the sales rep will come into the pharmacy and inform us that this drug is off patent and their company is starting to make the generic. Then they asked if we want to order from them.. bla bla. oh anyways Seroquel is off patent already, thank god. Their blister packaging is like the most misleading ones around. Got someone into trouble back in sg eh. haha
Other than the generic brand sales rep, there are the branded Pfizer, Merck, etc sales rep. Usually these reps only asked about post marketing stuff like adverse reactions, feedbacks from docs, pharms and customers. Out of all the sales reps, the generic Apo sales rep earns the most money, like a few million/ year if I remember correctly.
Haiz pay here is really good eh. The pay of a PT here is as much a pharmer at home. Guess I don't have to talk about a pharmers' pay here right, it's almost TWICE as much. THRICE if you're a free lance pharmer.
