A Brief Look at Common Prescription Label Abbreviations

The former chairman of the Worldwide Generics Pharmaceutical Industry Association, John Klein currently chairs Cambridge Therapeutics, a Teaneck, New Jersey, firm he founded in 2011. An entrepreneur and executive with decades of industry experience, he also serves as a trustee of the state’s Hackensack Meridian Health Hospitals. John Klein’s focus at Cambridge Therapeutics is to make physicians’ and patients’ lives easier through innovative prescription dosage packaging that minimizes frustration while promoting organization and safety. 

For today’s patients, such convenience is key to adherence to a medical regimen. Yet many people are unfamiliar with the standard abbreviations and Latin-derived code words on their own prescriptions. Here is a brief summary of some of the most common of these:

-If a doctor writes AC (“ante cibum” in Latin), he or she is instructing a patient to take the medication before meals. PC means “post cibum,” or after meals.
-If the physician wants a medication taken at bedtime, the prescription may say HS, for “hora somni.” 
-BID means “twice a day,” and comes from the Latin “bis in die.”
-PRN translates as “as needed,” and is from the Latin phrase “pro re nata.”
O.D. (“oculus dexter”), can mean “right eye,” just as O.S. (“oculus sinister”) means “left eye.” O.U. stands for “oculus uterque,” or “both eyes.”

Today’s prescriptions typically translate these obscure notations, and patients should always consult a qualified pharmacist or physician to clarify instructions.

Pharmaceutical Industry Takes Increasing Patient Focus

At Cambridge Therapeutics, Chairman John Klein and his team have produced a range of innovations in drug packaging that improve patient adherence to their prescription regimens. This focus on making dosage and usage simple and easy to understand for a patient or caregiver is in keeping with a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry. John Klein and Cambridge Therapeutics understand that putting people first is not only the right thing to do: it makes sound business sense in today’s consumer-powered marketplace.

In noting this trend, experts point out that in the heavily regulated pharmaceutical industry, patient input into new drug approval and access to markets can make or break a product. In this environment, the issue of maintaining quality while containing costs has generated urgent concern on the part of patients. One result: Pharmaceutical firms now routinely bring patients into the discussion at multiple stages of product development and launch. 

According to a number of experts, strategic leveraging of this emerging patient-centric worldview can produce increasingly high-value, affordable treatments, as well as greater adherence, improved healthcare outcomes, and better patient satisfaction. 

Forward-thinking pharmaceutical firms that have set these as desired goals are better poised to take advantage of today’s democratized marketplace, in which patients empower themselves through greater access to information, advocacy groups, and online tools that amplify their voices.

Harvard Business School Case Studies Deepen Students’ Understanding

With decades of experience in the business side of the pharmaceutical sector, Cambridge Therapeutics’ Chairman John Klein works to offer consistently innovative, patient-centered products and packaging. Prior to his endeavors with Cambridge Therapeutics, he held senior executive roles with some of the world’s premier firms. John Klein received a Businessweek Corporate Turnaround of the Year Award for his work with Zenith Laboratories. His service as a Harvard Business School consultant resulted in three of the school’s famed case studies.

The HBS case-study method changes the way students, teachers, and practitioners think by offering them in-depth glimpses into the actual decision-making processes involved in corporate and organizational strategies. The case studies examine in detail the challenges faced by major organizations, putting a student into the role of a real executive faced with the same incomplete information, resource constraints, and time-management issues that arise in a real-world decision-maker’s life. As in the real world, a case study offers no simple or obvious solutions.

HBS bases its field cases on actual company situations, including “armchair” cases, derived from the lived experiences or scholarship of an instructor. “Library” cases draw on published works to create challenging scenarios.

Numerous HBS graduates have noted that the rigors of this method, and the case study work they have absorbed, have been high points in their education.

How a Canadian Pediatrician Revolutionized Prescription Safety

Cambridge Therapeutics Chairman John Klein and his team aim to provide physicians and their patients with high-quality, innovative, easy-to-manage prescription drug packaging that helps to increase patient compliance with any prescription drug regimen. A New Jersey-based company founded by John Klein in 2011, Cambridge Therapeutics puts the same level of care into ensuring that its packaging meets all applicable standards for child-resistance and safety.

Cambridge Therapeutics and its peers’ focus on ensuring safety and developing packaging that keeps prescription medications out of the hands of children has a history that extends back many decades.

In 1967, a Canadian physician, Dr. Henri Breault, patented his Palm-n-Turn prescription bottle lid. Dr. Breault began his work on the design after the tragic deaths of some 100 Canadian children every year due to accidental poisonings. As chief of pediatrics in a poison-control center at the Hotel Dieu Hospital, he had handled numerous cases in which he had to pump children’s stomachs to save their lives.

Dr. Breault’s lid is credited for a 25 percent lowering of the rate of accidental poisonings of children in the province of Ontario. Other Canadian provinces adopted it, and the United States established regulations in 1970 that required such child-resistant designs on some prescription medications. Worldwide adoption of the design led to some governments’ additional requirements that dangerous home products such as bleach also be packaged in child-resistant containers.

Dr. Breault died in 1983, but his impact on child safety has been compared to that of Jonas Salk on fighting polio.

Harvard Business School's New Venture Competition

As the chairman of Cambridge Therapeutics, John Klein leverages his extensive background in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries to guide the strategic direction of the company. Outside of his pursuits at Cambridge Therapeutics, John Klein has provided consulting services to Harvard Business School on strategic ways to improve competitiveness.

One program that Harvard Business School offers to students is its annual New Venture Competition. Featuring a $300,000 prize, the competition provides student teams with the opportunity to present a new idea for a business or a social enterprise. To compete in the business track, teams must include at least one current Harvard Business School MBA student to play a lead role in the business and serve as a major equity holder. 

For the social enterprise track, teams must consist primarily of Harvard University graduate students who hold meaningful roles in the proposed organization. For social enterprise entries, one team member must meet these qualifications: be a Harvard Business School MBA student, either a Center for Public Leadership fellow or Adrian Cheng fellow, or a Harvard graduate student taking certain courses. In addition to the student competitions, HBS alumni can enter regional New Venture Competitions with cash prizes of $100,000.

Novel Drug Delivery System May Boost Effectiveness of Cancer Treatment

An accomplished pharmaceutical executive based in Teaneck, New Jersey, John Klein is the chairman of Cambridge Therapeutics. In his capacity with Cambridge Therapeutics, he oversees the development of novel drug delivery systems and combination drug therapies. John Klein also keeps up with industry news related to areas such as novel drug delivery systems.

A new and exciting frontier in the field of pharmaceuticals, novel drug delivery systems aim to improve therapeutic efficacy and increase patients’ compliance with their prescribed regimens. New advancements in the field are happening at Virginia Tech, where faculty researchers have developed a novel drug delivery system with the potential to enhance cancer treatment options.

Current treatments that involve injecting nanoparticle drugs into patients have limited effectiveness because few of those nanoparticles reach the cancer site. On the other hand, through the new Nanoscale Bacteria-Enabled Autonomous Drug Delivery System (NanoBEADS), anti-cancer nanoparticle drugs are chemically attached to attenuated bacteria cells, which boosts the effectiveness of the treatment by allowing more of the therapeutic agents to reach the cancer site.

The Benefits of Physician Prescription Dispensing

Based in Teaneck, New Jersey, John Klein is the chairman of Cambridge Therapeutics, where he draws on his experience in the health care and pharmaceutical industries to guide the organization. Under John Klein’s direction, Cambridge Therapeutics focuses on providing innovative health care solutions, including novel drug delivery systems and physician prescription dispensing.

Physicians who opt to dispense from their own offices the medications that they prescribe can obtain a revenue boost. Given that the National Center for Health Statistics estimates that a typical physician writes approximately 35 prescriptions daily, adding a $10 handling surcharge on each one could result in up to $350 or more in additional daily revenue without using any additional physician time.

In addition to being more profitable for the physician’s practice and investors, physician-dispensed prescriptions offer increased convenience to patients because they can receive their medications at the point of care rather than waiting in line at the pharmacy. Prescriptions dispensed in a doctor’s office also may also help to increase adherence to medication regimens. Currently, as many as 31 percent of new prescriptions go unfilled by patients, according to the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Hackensack Meridian Health’s Med School Partnership with Seton Hall

A pharmaceutical industry executive with extensive experience helming top companies such as Ivax and Zenith Laboratories, John Klein serves as chairman of Cambridge Therapeutics, based in Teaneck, New Jersey. In addition to his other professional and civic responsibilities, John Klein serves as a trustee of Hackensack Meridian Health Hospitals.

Early in 2018, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University began accepting applications for positions in its inaugural class set to matriculate that summer. The school, a partnership between the health care system and Seton Hall, is New Jersey’s only private medical school. It was established in response to the dearth of physicians in New Jersey and the growing contemporary focus on individual wellness and community-centered care.

In addition to their organization’s work on the Seton Hall educational partnership, members of the Hackensack Meridian Health Board of Trustees have supported the establishment of a scholarship endowment fund of $100 million to aid medical students in need.

Hackensack Meridian Health Hospitals Named among Best in Region

As chairman of Cambridge Therapeutics, John Klein leverages 30 years of experience in generic drug development and distribution to help increase shareholder value. Beyond his role with Cambridge Therapeutics, John Klein is a trustee of Hackensack Meridian Health Hospitals.

In August 2018, four Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals earned a place on U.S. News & World Report's list of the top 10 hospitals in New Jersey. Hackensack University Medical Center was ranked as the second-best hospital in the state as well as the fifth-best in the New York Metro region. Moreover, it is ranked nationally in colon cancer surgery, hip replacement, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and heart failure, among other areas. 

Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Riverview Medical Center, and Raritan Bay Medical Center were ranked as the 4th, 8th, and 10th-best hospitals in the state, respectively. It was the first time in the top 10 for Raritan Bay, which was also recognized for its high-quality treatment and care of patients with heart failure. In compiling the statewide rankings and acknowledging areas of high performance, U.S. News considered patient experience, safety, and volume as well as quality of nursing care and risk-adjusted survival and readmission rates.

The Ellis Island Medal of Honor

A pharmaceutical executive with extensive experience in leading generic drug development and distribution for a variety of companies, John Klein is the founder of Cambridge Therapeutics. John Klein, who currently serves Cambridge Therapeutics as chairman, is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Created in 1986 by the Ellis Island Honors Society (EIHS), the Medal of Honor is presented annually to individuals who have inspired Americans and achieved significant goals in their respective fields. Past recipients of the medal include seven U.S. presidents, Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Recipients of the medal do not have to be born in the United States, but must embody the spirit of the country in their values of tolerance, patriotism, diversity, and brotherhood. 

Medals are presented at the EIHS annual gala on Ellis Island. The island is closed to the public during the gala, which begins with an opening ceremony that includes 300 service members and a joint-service color guard that represents the five military branches. Recipients of the 2018 Ellis Island Medal of Honor included Philip and Nancy Anschutz, Major General Hugh Van Roosen, Mark Solazzo, and Farooq Kathwari.

MBA Program Options at Roosevelt University

The chairman and founder of Cambridge Therapeutics, John Klein completed graduate studies in finance and business at the University of Southern California and studied strategic decision-making at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. John Klein also holds a bachelor of science and a master of business administration from Roosevelt University. 

Aimed at preparing students for executive and managerial positions in both the public and private sectors, the MBA program at Roosevelt University emphasizes problem solving and decision making, along with other key skills that drive professional success. The program simultaneously offers broad preparation in all aspects of business administration, while allowing students to choose a specific business concentration. 

Roosevelt’s Heller College of Business offers concentrations that include finance, international business, accounting, management, and marketing. Students may opt to focus on a graduate program in another department, opening up career paths based in economics and health administration. Additionally, students may choose to develop a custom concentration, combining any three graduate courses that support their educational goals.

FDA Approval Process Builds Safety into Its Design

John Klein brings three decades of pharmaceutical industry experience to his current position as chairman of Cambridge Therapeutics. In addition to his service with Cambridge Therapeutics and other for-profit companies, John Klein guided the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process for hundreds of new drugs and supplements as a past chairman of the Worldwide Generics Pharmaceutical Industry Association.

The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) is the conduit through which new medications must pass before they are approved for sale and use within the US. It typically takes about a decade to approve a new drug but that lengthy process helps to ensure that only the safest and most effective medications reach the market. 

Before a drug can even be considered by the CDER team, its manufacturer is first required to conduct thorough rounds of testing according to established protocols. After the CDER receives the documentation noting the test results from a pharmaceutical company, its own cadre of scientists begins to conduct a complete review.

To file an application to have a drug approved for sale, the pharmaceutical company must demonstrate that the drug treats a specific condition and is safe for use by human beings. The company must provide evidence about the drug derived from clinical trials. Its application must also include safety and potential for abuse, directions for patient dosage, and the label information.

Generic Medications Offer Brand Name Strength with Lower Costs

As chairman of Cambridge Therapeutics in Teaneck, New Jersey, John Klein oversees the development of innovative drug delivery systems and combination therapy medications. John Klein’s 30 years of pharmaceutical experience include service in an executive capacity with multiple firms, as well as his work chairing the Worldwide Generics Pharmaceutical Industry Association. 

Generic medications are created according to the same formulations as Food and Drug Administration-approved branded drugs. Their level of effectiveness, safety, and quality, and the way they address illness within the human body are identical as well. Generic medications must undergo lengthy testing and FDA approval before released to the market.

In fact, an entire arm of the regulatory body – the FDA Generic Drugs Program – is designed to subject new generics to the same stringent controls that are applied to brand-name medications. Generics offer the advantage of often being far less expensive than their brand-name counterparts because they are not advertised and are packaged in nondescript containers. 

As each new drug enters the market, it receives a brand name and a generic name. The originating company markets the medication under its brand name. After that company’s patent expires, other firms may manufacture it under the generic name.

Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations

Based in Teaneck, New Jersey, John Klein leads Cambridge Therapeutics as chairman. John Klein has strategically guided Cambridge Therapeutics in this role since 2011, relying in part on his knowledge of the Code of Federal Regulations put out by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

In order to enforce federal requirements governing medical devices and products that emit radiation, the FDA develops and implements regulations for the industry. These regulations are first published online in the Federal Register and ultimately printed in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), which is published annually. 

The CFR comprises 50 titles that cover a broad spectrum of regulations. Title 21 (Parts 800-1299), which applies to medical devices and radiation-emitting products, includes specifications for the design, clinical evaluation, manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and after-sale tracking of medical devices. Title 21 also covers relevant standards and required reporting for products that emit radiation.

Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance via Contract Manufacturing

John Klein serves as the chairman of Cambridge Therapeutics, a health care technology company in Teaneck, New Jersey. With experience that encompasses contract manufacturing for pharmaceutical products, John Klein has worked with Food and Drug Administration-approved contractors across the globe.

Owners of contracted facilities where pharmaceuticals are made are responsible for ensuring that approved products satisfy all requirements and that deficient products are rejected before release. Similar to a quality-control process, contract manufacturing necessitates executive verification that all products are produced, packaged, and distributed in compliance with FDA regulations. In addition, the quality unit that checks the products for compliance must have its procedures and professional obligations clearly articulated in writing.

Known as quality agreements, these documents outline the products to be produced and their quality specifications, as well as the communication process between the owner and the contract facility. Comprehensive quality agreements also should cover subcontractor responsibilities, the process for making changes to processes or equipment, and guidelines for audit practices.