Survey on Accumulated Drug Information by Pharmaceutical Companies about Crushed or Simply Suspended Internal Medicines

Objective: We conducted a survey on drug information accumulated by pharmaceutical companies about the adequacy of administration of crushed or simply suspended internal medicines through enteral feeding tube, examination methods to confirm adequacy and inquiries from medical institutions to pharmaceutical companies about the adequacy of these methods.Methods: We sent a questionnaire to 162 pharmaceutical companies that sell internal medicines to collect information. The survey was conducted from May 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017.Results: The questionnaire response rate was 61% (99 companies responded). Eighty and 90 percent of the companies possessed information about the drug crushing methods and simple suspension methods used for administration of internal medicines,respectively. The type of information and examination methods used varied among the companies, was very limited, and was often limited to new drugs. The information acquisition rate about crushing methods was 69.3% in original examination methods of pharmaceutical companies. On the other hand, 90.3% of the information about simple suspension methods was obtained by the unified method of Hand Book of Simple Suspension Method.Conclusions: In the future, medical practice and patients will benefit if examination methods to confirm the adequacy of crushing and administration through feeding tubes are commonly and consistently obtained by pharmaceutical companies. Furthermore, it would be very useful for information of crushing methods and simple suspension methods to be included in package inserts and interview forms.