The COVID pandemic showed us all just how fragile America’s supply chain can be. So, what will happen if there’s another — possibly an even worse — breakdown? And more specifically, what will happen to our medicine supplies? It’s something JASE Medical’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Shawn Rowland, thinks about often: ‘I could sit here for three hours and talk about the the razor-knife edge that we’re on' with potential supply chain issues, he tells Glenn. So, in this clip, Dr. Rowland describes one solution to medicine shortages recently devised by his team — and it’s a solution that potentially could save your life…
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: All right. Full disclosure, before I get into this. Jase medical is a -- a sponsor of -- are you just Blaze? You're not radio too, right?
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Okay. I talked to these guys a year ago.
And they had what they put together was the Jase case.
And it has five different antibiotics in it. And I thought that was really great. Because as we were talking, I said, you know, my daughter takes anti-seizure medication. You know, I'm on high blood pressure.
And if you know anything at all, about when the system breaks down, your anti-psychotic drugs run out in 30 days.
Your blood pressure. Your antiseizure. All the things that are keeping people alive, that probably wouldn't have been alive, you know, a few years ago.
They all run out in 30 days.
Where are you going to get that?
That's the question I asked you guys, a year ago.
And you said, we're working on it. So let me bring in Dr. Shawn Rowland. He's the founder and CEO of Jase Medical.
What are you bringing?
SHAWN: Well, as you mentioned, yeah, this was a year ago. We have been working on this for a while. Bringing to market the antibiotics. Knowing that that was just really the first step.
And a very important step. A vital step.
But to your point. Everyone is out there, dealing with different personal conditions.
And so finding a way to do our same service with the Jase case. Which is our antibiotics. Being able to do the same thing for chronic conditions.
So we're -- we're super excited.
We're here to let everyone know. They can now go to Jase medical.com.
They can get access to up to a year supply of their -- whatever chronic medication they take. Blood pressure. Thyroid. Seizure disorders.
There's quite a list.
GLENN: How expensive is it to buy -- to buy a year's worth.
I know my daughter's medication for her anti-seizure is like $700 a month. It's something outrageous.
CAROL: Yeah. So that's a really good question. It's so dependent on the actual medication you're taking. Some of them are pennies. Some are not.
And so really, it runs the gamut. But what we've tried to do is basically make it as accessible as possible.
It's not just the medications you have to pay for. You have to pay for the physician visit, to have that encounter, to get the prescriptions. And then go to the pharmacy. Get your prescriptions, and have them sent out.
So packaging that all together, turns out though, it's probably a lot more accessible than people realize.
Just because we're so used to dealing with insurance companies, and copays. And we're disconnected from the true cost of the carrier that we received.
GLENN: Right.
CAROL: And so this kind of -- has taken all that out. And made a much more direct connection between ourselves, the patient, and the physicians.
GLENN: So you put together a list here.
And I don't recognize any of these drugs, that I'm on one of them. Duloxetine.
Isn't that anti-depression medication, or not?
SHAWN: Yeah, that is one.
GLENN: And a 12-month supply is 60 bucks. That's great!
SHAWN: Right. Yeah. There's some on there that's 40, 50, $60. You mentioned some seizure medications. Those may get up a little more too.
GLENN: Yeah. I'm sure.
SHAWN: And right now, is limited to pills, tablets, for the most part.
So injectables aren't yet on the list. Insulin, which is a big request.
GLENN: How could you even store it for a year, though?
SHAWN: So if it's stored properly, you can, in some cases, get up to a year of viability out of your insulin.
As soon as you take it out of the fridge, the clock starts ticking. You get your 30 days or whatever it is. So there is a way to do it.
That's another one, that we could maybe come back and talk about. But that's another one that is in the works.
GLENN: Right. And how are you -- because the government is so freaked out about every kind of pill for you.
And they're cracking down on everything.
And, you know, they're creating all kinds of problems and shortages. And everything else.
But do you have to have your doctor call in to you guys? Or what do you do?
SHAWN: Right. The biggest thing, bringing up kind of regulations, you know, our goal, we want to empower people. And we want to do that through access. Access to physicians. Access to the medications, at a reasonable rate.
And part of this though, is not everything is on the table.
Is not everything is an appropriate or safe option. So of course, controlled substances, is just an immediate off the list. There's no way I can get you a year supply of your ADD medication. Or your pain medicine.
There are certain medications that are just disqualified, right off the bat.
And that, is appropriate.
It's the best way to do it.
GLENN: Yeah. That would cause you all kinds of trouble.
SHAWN: Yeah, and I think trying to balance access and empowerment with appropriateness, is also really important for us.
GLENN: Right.
SHAWN: So when it comes to the controlled substances, that's just something that we're not able to help with right now.
Again, though, coming up with some other things in the works there. So really, we're talking about the legacy drugs. These are -- you've been on your blood pressure meds ten years. You see your doctor regularly.
Things are under control. You haven't saved your dose. You're a safe patient. You are someone I as a physician, would feel comfortable, knowing that you have regular follow-up.
I will give you a year of prescription for this medication. And why not?
And that can be applied to a lot of different medications and conditions.
And they're all relatively, I'm going to say low risk. When you compare them to opioids and things like that. So that's where regulatory-wise, it goes through a board-certified position, licensed in your state.
Goes to a pharmacy. That also is licensed to do business in your state as well. So...
GLENN: And the Jase case has, what? Five flights of antibiotics?
SHAWN: Right. So you have five antibiotics in there. Covers really quite a range of different potential bacterial infections.
They were especially curated and selected because of things they cover.
You know, we want to cover things that are common. That might be common in a scenario. Where you don't have access to medical care.
Things like UTIs. You know, urinary tract infections. Or sinus or pneumonia. We also want to cover things that are really deadly. Like a bioterror attack.
There was an incidence of bioterror in your city. Some aerosolized anthrax which is one of the agents that have been identified by the government.
GLENN: Plague.
SHAWN: Plague is another one.
GLENN: And don't worry anybody. Just in China, the same lab, they're doing experiments with the lab. I mean, with the Black Plague. And it should work out fine.
SHAWN: So there is treatment for that. And prophylactic treatment. That everybody would need to be on. One of the drugs is doxycycline. In the event of one of these attacks -- to prevent the -- to prevent getting sick, right?
So how that gets from the national stockpile into your hands as a citizen, in whatever citizen you're in. I'm not sure how well that will go. We kind of saw how the vaccine roll out went. And things like that. And it needs to happen within 24 hours. So probably not going to happen.
That's one of the things we include. And we include it in an amount that would be appropriate to take. Which is two months. You have to take the medication for two straight months.
SHAWN: That's in the Jase case. Yeah. It's a long, long prophylactic.
GLENN: And you get it for each member of your family?
SHAWN: Yeah. This is another one. Where you need to operate within these appropriate bounds. Right now, it's for one person. Because it has to be prescribed to that person for that physician.
Age-wise. It's adults.
If you have a minor. If you have a child, that's 14 or older in your family, they basically will be taking adult doses anyway.
We will do it for adults as well. So it does leave a big portion. We've talked about pediatric patients. Those are that are younger. So that's another.
GLENN: I have to tell you -- are you guys preppers?
SHAWN: Well, I am going to say yes. I guess preppers is -- everyone -- there's such a range.
GLENN: I know. I know.
Let me just say this. You're worried about the supply chains. You're worried about things.
SHAWN: Oh, yeah.
I could sit here for the next three hours and talk about the dangers. The knife -- the razor's knife edge that we are on. That is at its core, why I did this.
Is -- is because of that -- because of living through preCOVID. Being in a hospital. A Community Hospital. And dealing with shortages, at that time.
Which is, for me, what is going on? How can this be?
GLENN: We stopped being the America I know, during COVID. For multiple reasons.
But one, I remember people saying, well, we're out of that. We won't have that for six months. I'm like, what the -- what do you mean, six months?
SHAWN: Well, yeah, and that may work for your computer chip in your car. Maybe you can wait a year for a new stove to install. But that doesn't work for medications.
GLENN: Right. And if we go to war, China even just does a trade war with us.
Don't they make like 18 different ingredients, that we don't have access to?
Like most of our drugs.
SHAWN: At least. Yeah. All roads lead back to China when we're talking about pharmaceutical supply. Even when we look at factories in India, which is another big supplier for the world. Not just for the United States. We're in line with everybody else.
For the world. Turns out, and this happened over COVID, actually. India's government came out. And said for the first time. These are numbers that are really hard to find.
The FDA can't find them. And the government is trying to figure out, how can we get more transparency in the supply chain.
India came out and said, around 70 percent of their active pharmaceutical ingredients for their manufacturing process comes from China.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
SHAWN: Again, kind of all roads lead back to China.
Certainly, when we talk about generic medications. Which is 95 percent of what we take in the United States on a daily basis are generic medications.
Virtually 100 percent of those are produced out of the US, and mainly have some tie, whether it's an ingredient, or outright manufacturing in China.
GLENN: Well, it's good to talk you to. I'm interested to see how this all will work out.
The -- I want you to go to additional and this is not a commercial. I was so excited, when they talked to me about the Jase case. One of the first things I said, what about all the people that will die in 30 days, if the supply chain breaks down?
And they said, we're working on it. And I said, when you guys have it, you come on the show. Because this is the one piece of the prepper's job that has not been able to be solved.
SHAWN: Absolutely. You have your food and water. But without your health.
GLENN: Yeah. Just -- just America without its psychiatric meds. The number of depression we have that are killing themselves now.
Imagine in hard times, and no medication.
In 30 days, you start to have --
SHAWN: It's terrifying. And some of them are life-threatening. Particularly you're talking about some of the psychiactric medications.
Those are ones -- if you stop taking your Staten or your cholesterol, you probably will be okay. You can get back on -- you have some time.
GLENN: Right.
SHAWN: Those other medications specifically in that kind of psyche realm and some others.
You can't just stop them cold turkey. There will be consequences.
And you're right. We just haven't had a viable option, to -- to protect ourself. Or our family.
GLENN: Yeah. Protect your family now. Go to Jase Medical now. Find out all about it.
Jase. J-A-S-EMedical.com. Congratulations. Thank you for solving this.
SHAWN: Thank you.
I feel like we have a lot more work to do. And we're just getting started.
This is great. You've been great helping us get the word out.
GLENN: You bet. One step at a time. Make sure every step is exactly right.
You make one false step, and then we lose this opportunity. So thank you. JaseMedical.com.
That's JaseMedical.com.
