<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Apologies for the delay in summarizing my replies. I went away unexpectedly, and just got around to putting it all together Several people referred me to Stokes Pharmacy in Medford, N.J., 1-800-754-5222. I spoke to a pharmacist there who said that they often reach different individuals when checking with pharmaceutical companies, therefore receive different responses. As far as Pharmacia & Upjohn (the co. employee who told me he didn't consider any drugs GF) is concerned, the Stokes pharmacist said that they were given a list of several of Upjohn's drugs that are considered GF. Stokes Pharmacy publishes an excellent guide on prescription and non presc. drugs, available at $18 plus shipping (call 800 no. above). However, they caution that the composition of meds can change at any time, and advise checking with the different manufacturers yourself. They have included a list of phone nos. of drug manufacturers at the end of their guide. They are thinking of producing a publication, available by subscription so many times a year, listing the updated changes in pharmaceutical products. The following are replies from individuals that I will try to condense as much as possible.I will refer to a list server as LS. One LS stated that her pharmacist told her all drugs are GF. She still calls for every prescription. Lilly (re drug raloxifene), considers all of their drugs GF, after a phone call by an LS. One pharmacist suggested we use liquid medications. He said the chance of contamination and/or using wheat as a filler is significantly reduced. One LS asked her pharmacist if a med. contained gluten. He wanted to know what gluten was and why she wanted to know. He said he didn't know how to find out, and obviously didn't care. One LS's thought was that a drug could well be gluten free, but not guaranteed as such. Thinking of how most clothing now bears a label that says 'dry clean only' for purely defensive legal reasons, even though the clothing doesn't really need to be dry cleaned. "This aspect aside, we clearly need to address this area of regulation and lobby for change. I am thinking of establishing a correspondence with our congressional rep., as this can be a way of making progress, so I understand." One LS ran into the same situation with Triaminic manufacturers. Says the pharmaceutical cos. are just trying to cover themselves. How about a home gluten test kit? "Actually, pharmaceutical cos. can require their suppliers to guarantee that their products are GF. This would be one more small hoop to jump through for the FDA, and pharmaceutical companies already jump through lots of hoops in order to market their products. So it wouldn't add much of an administrative burden or overhead to the pharm. manufacturers........ but, the message would really have to come from the FDA itself. That's where political pressure comes in handy. You need to have all of the disparate CD groups come together to put pressure on the FDA." One LS suggests telling the manufacturers consumer rep about the life threatening potential of the situation, that finding out the ingredients of the product is essential. " Ask for a list of suppliers for the product, so you can check the ingredients yourself. If he will not provide such a list, ask him to contact the resource companies for you and check the likelihood and frequency of his company changing suppliers. For any company that provides an answer, send a fax to the individual, care of the company, recapitulating the information they have provided, asking them to fax back any corrections, if necessary. Be sure to get a record from the fax machine confirming the document you sent, date and to whom. Sometimes in writing in this situation, the company rep gets more meticulous about what they have said, if it is necessary, since this is a legal document." If all else fails, refer back to your doctor, and have him check, or prescribe another product! One LS refers to the irony of CD. " The people and products that we rely on to help us and keep us well, are poisoning us" .. all prescription meds and over the counter as well. "We need vitamins, cold meds, pain relievers, laxatives, etc. along with prescription meds that have never been near any product that was produced with grain or any grain-derived product. If the wheat hybidizers and the biotect sproducers continue to increase the % of gluten in wheat, then CD will become a plague in the 45 million US citizens of Irish ancestry. In the next 10-20 years, the 15% of blood samples of Irish citizens that showed gluten intolerance could easily balloon into well over 6 million US CD sufferers. Add to that the people of German and Scandinavian ancestry and we have a first class medical disaster in the making. Perhaps the LS's should start to spend a lot less time looking for GF chocolate cake recipes and a little more time trying to get the medical community to take notice and bring their considerable resources to bear on this problem." Sorry for the length of the above, but I think we have a lot to think about as far as where we're going with the various organizations that are our there to help us. Obviously we have to make a concerted effort to let them know that there are alot of us out there, and that our problem is a valid one. Cherry Marshall, N.J.