Metro Detroit mother concerned about impact of hot weather on mailed epinephrine
(CBS DETROIT) — A Rochester mother is concerned about her 16-year-old son's allergy medication after she says it arrived at their home without the equipment to keep it at a certain temperature.
"It's like a gamble. It's like Russian roulette now with this medication," says Lisa Rutter.
Her family recently had to switch insurance providers, so if they want insurance to cover his Auvi-Q auto-injectors, they have to go through CVS Caremark delivery services.
"Usually when it's sent to us, it is sent with a cooling gel pack to keep it at room temperature, especially in these temperatures right now," Rutter said.
Prior to the insurance switch, Rutter ordered through Auvi-Q delivery services. She says has since received two boxes from CVS Caremark with no cooling mechanism.
"If they end up at the wrong temperature, they can actually become a little degraded which can make them less effective," said Shikha Jain, associate professor at the University of Illinois Cancer Center. "So if someone has a life-threatening allergic reaction and needs that medication to save their life, the medication may not be as effective."
Jain says auto-injectors like Auvi-Q should not be in environments that are exposed to heat for long periods of time.
A spokesperson for CVS Caremark sent the following statement to CBS News Detroit:
"Our mail-order drug delivery packaging is customized for each patient by a sophisticated algorithm that looks at specific information provided by the drug manufacturer and the FDA.
We also take into account anticipated weather during the course of the shipment and at the delivery destination. There are 99 different possible packaging combinations that we can use based on these data to help mitigate any weather and temperature issues.
Our mail order pharmacy has decades of experience delivering tens of millions of prescriptions over the years and we continually refine our processes. If one of our 90 million PBM members faces a unique challenge with their order, we develop alternative delivery methods to help meet their specific needs."
"You're sending this to people who have no idea, so if their kid has a life-threatening reaction, they have no idea that this medicine might be garbage now," Rutter said.
Rutter, who is also the director of Support Group Development for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Connection Team, says she is fortunate to have a platform on which to share this with other families who have children with severe allergies.
For now, she's in a position where she has to get the medication outside of her family's insurance plan directly from Auvi-Q delivery services who deliver it with that cooling gel pack.