And here is more reasons that I see West-Ward slide farther down the hole. This gives scalpers first dibs at products to over inflate the pricing. Some wholesaler have a first come-first serve policy and allows them to take total inventory. They pay people to watch products and to take them all while we as buyers have multiple other jobs than sitting and watching the wholesalers get inventory. Below is a letter that I have recently received from West-Ward


Good Afternoon,

I hope that everyone has had a great week!

I want to pass along some very important changes regarding West-Ward’s policies on DIRECT ORDERS & DIRECT ACCOUNTS.

As of today, West-Ward will no longer accept direct orders or open any new direct accounts. Instead, we are working closely with all wholesalers to ensure consistent supply on all products and better improve stocking across the board. Our belief is that the wholesalers are better equipped to establish usage patterns and thus allocate product adequately to you. We understand that this might create some issues initially as the wholesalers work to re-establish your buying patterns, but in the long run, this will be a benefit to you as the wholesalers will be sufficiently stocked and better able to fulfill your needs.

MARKET SHORTAGE PRODUCTS:
- All “market shortage products” will be shipped directly to the wholesalers (i.e. Glycopyrrolate, Nicardipine, Neostigmine 1:1000). Please see below for notes on current direct orders.
- Please work with your wholesaler representative to establish your usage and ensure appropriate allocations.

“NON Market Shortage” Items (meaning we, the manufacturer, have supply, but your wholesaler does not):
- I will continue to send out our Availability Report to you on a weekly basis (see attached for most recent report) so that you can monitor availability and verify that your wholesaler is adequately stocked
- If you encounter an issue where your wholesaler is showing an outage or is referencing a product as “not stocked”……….please:
o Place a phantom order with your wholesaler (if possible) to create demand.
o Notify me immediately and I will work with our trade relations manager to rectify the stocking issue.

CURRENT ORDERS IN OUR SYSTEM:
- No new direct orders will be accepted as of today for any of West-Ward products.
- If you have placed an order previously:
o Existing orders for products NOT on market shortage will be shipped in full when product becomes available. No new orders will be accepted.
o Existing orders for products ON market shortage (i.e. Glycopyrrolate, Nicardipine, Neostigmine 1:1000) will be shipped as product becomes available. No new orders will be accepted.
 You will receive a specific communication from me regarding the status of your orders for Glycopyrrolate, Nicardipine and Neostigmine 1:1000. I appreciate your patience as this information is drafted for you. You can expect to receive this communication by mid-week next week.
 Please note, market shortage product orders may receive partial shipments.

If you have any questions at all or would like to discuss this in greater detail, please do not hesitate to call or email me.

Best Regards,

Brit

Name of Facility: Memorial Hospital

City, State: Marysville, Ohio

Years as a Buyer: 25+

Baxter's sell-out of injectables to West-ward has to be one of the worst business decisions in recent history. To say that West-ward was completely unprepared to enter the market fully stocked with products is a huge understatement! And to be the only manufacturer of several important drugs, like glycopyrrolate (American Regent doesn't count!) and have none for distribution calls into question their ability to ever meet market demand.
Multiple communications have been sent out detailing the "seamless" transition of NDCs for glyco. Really??? I must have missed that!!
And now to have to rely on wholesalers to protect the interests of pharmacy buyers over profit by selling to black marketers by refusing direct orders, West-ward chalks up another strike against themselves.

Name of Facility: Porter Regional Hospital

City, State: Valparaiso IN

Years as a Buyer: 15+

.......and WestWard's explanation for the glycopyrrolate dramatic price increase is ............. :)

Name of Facility: IUH Bloomington

City, State: Indiana

Years as a Buyer: 7

Sounds like crickets in the middle of the night. Im doing what I can to stear clear of them as much as possible. There are serveral items that are dual awarded that I will pay a bit more for so I dont have to buy there product. Its not much but it is a stand against what they are doing.

Name of Facility: Memorial Hospital

City, State: Marysville, Ohio

Years as a Buyer: 30+