Supporting Your Patient’s Quitting Journey with Stock on Hand

Nicotine is a product of dependence and is freely available to patients in the form of cigarettes. It is critically important to ensure that if you have patients who have been prescribed NVPs, your pharmacy is sufficiently stocked at all times.

When a patient presents in your pharmacy, even a 24-hour wait for stock availability can result in your patient relapsing to smoking or seeking support elsewhere.

Base Stock Hold Requirement

• While Nicovape® Q50 (50 mg/mL) is prescribed for most patients, Nicovape® Q35 and Q20 (35 mg/mL and 20 mg/mL respectively) may be prescribed for those with lower dependencies or who are likely to find the sensory characteristics of Nicovape® Q50 intolerable.
• Flavour selection (Classic tobacco/Coolmint/Freshmint) is likely initially based on the patient’s existing preferences, but may differ on subsequent orders.

We understand that knowing which options to have on hand can be difficult. However, it is important to understand that if a pharmacy is unable to fill a script when presented, patients are likely to visit a competing and stocked pharmacy, revert to smoking, or buy illegally from the black market – all of which will allow them immediate access.

As a result, the following is recommended as a base stock hold in your pharmacy. This should be maintained to service future initiating patients, and selectively increased to continue servicing each returning patient’s requirements:

Repeat Patient Stock Requirement

For the patient’s first month, the starting script will likely be as follows:

• 1 x Nicovape® Q device (initial purchase, but may request additions/replacements); and
• 28 x Nicovape® Q cartridges (4 x 7-packs).

While the amount of Nicovape® Q cartridges purchased during the initial transaction should be used as an indication of future requirements, you should discuss with each patient how they would like their repeats dispensed during the course of their treatment:

• If a patient presents with an initial script and requests that the script be adjusted to support staged supply, you should ask the patient how regularly (weekly, fortnightly, or other) they would like to return to fill the remainder of their script.
  • This will form a useful basis for you to gauge future levels of stock on hand.
  • Liber provides individual dispensing bags in the Liber Pharmacy Pack for patients who seek to be dispensed less than a 7-pack of Nicovape® Q cartridges at a single time.
• In the event that you do not have the specific flavour or concentration of Nicovape® Q that the patient has requested:
  • Explain to the patient that you will be able to arrange stock efficiently, and that this should be a one-time issue that will be avoided for the remainder of their quit journey.
  • If you have other flavours of Nicovape® Q available in the same concentration, suggest that the patient try those while you arrange for the requested stock to arrive for dispensing. This may represent a situation where you dispense less than a 7-pack of Nicovape® Q cartridges while you wait for stock to be delivered from your CSO wholesaler.

Once you have dispensed a patient’s first script, your focus should be on retaining that patient for the rest of their quitting journey.

As patient intake and retention grows, stock on hand will increase accordingly to support the quitting efforts of a larger pool of patients. This will provide you with greater certainty from a stock management perspective, as well as represent regular and recurring income.