Author: Peter

...the FDA wants to know whether consumers care one way or the other about influencers' paid endorsements….The agency proposed two studies this week to look at four different kinds of influencers in advertising—celebrities, physicians, patients and online influencers. In the first study, participants will view print ads featuring a physician, a celebrity and a patient with either a full disclosure that the person was paid to appear or no disclosure at all...The second study will tap 698 followers of an Instagram influencer with more than half a million and ask them to view posts for a fictitious endometriosis product labeled directly as paid ads; labeled indirectly, such as with the common hashtag #sp for sponsored; or not labeled at all...The intent of both is to look at the “role of the endorsement and payment status on participants' recall, benefit and risk perceptions, and behavioral intentions,” according to the filing...READ MORE

One hundred forty four prescriptions filled in 7 days. That seems like a slow week at Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center. But those were the outpatient prescriptions, which the hospital doesn’t dispense normally...The hospital in Bolivia, North Carolina, was hit hard by Hurricane Florence for 7 days in September 2018. Twenty-three inches of rain in Bolivia--and as much as 27 inches of rain in nearby Sunny Point--led to flooding and impassable roads...Pre-Hurricane Florence, Perry Allen, PharmD, pharmacy manager, a 26-year veteran at the hospital, had 2 priorities: Have the right team on scene before, during, and after the storm and secure the necessary medications to ride out the storm...On behalf of the hospital’s pharmacy team, Allen received the 2019 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists CEO’s Award for Courageous Service...READ MORE

Gianna Melillo, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Quality, speed, and price has been referred to as the "Unattainable Triangle". Fast, good, cheap—pick 2. Every business faces this question every time the doors are open for business. You can’t possibly have all 3. When you try to improve 1 side of the triangle, the other 2 sides will be impacted...think about our individual struggle with the triangle. How many of us are in low quality, high stressed jobs because of our “price” (salary)? In a fulfilling pharmacist career, the focus is always on quality...READ MORE

Purdue has been identified as "Pharma Co. X," an unnamed opioid maker at the center of a federal kickback probe that netted a $145 million criminal and civil settlement...from Practice Fusion, a subsidiary of Allscripts Healthcare...According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont, Practice Fusion admitted that it had solicited and received kickbacks from a major opioid company––allegedly Purdue, which shelled out roughly $1 million in payments––in exchange for using its electronic health record software to influence physician prescribing of opioid pain medications..."During the height of the opioid crisis, (Practice Fusion) took a million-dollar kickback to allow an opioid company to inject itself in the sacred doctor-patient relationship so that it could peddle even more of its highly addictive and dangerous opioids,” Christina Nolan, U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont, said in a statement...READ MORE

With federal prosecutors laying waste to Insys' executive team, one big domino was still left to fall: Founder and former CEO John Kapoor, who had a leading role in the drugmaker's opioid kickback scheme. Now, Kapoor will face a stiff prison sentence that sets the bar for executives in the opioid industry...A federal judge in Boston sentenced Kapoor...to five and a half years in prison for his role in a doctor kickback scheme to boost subscriptions of Subsys...READ MORE

Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

A pharmacy group is taking a wait-and-see approach after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced several drug reforms–including a state generic prescription drug label...If the proposed reforms are approved, California would be the first state to have its own generic drug label...“A major cause of skyrocketing prescription drug prices is bargaining asymmetry, by which the pharmaceutical industry, often wielding monopoly power, is left unchecked, in the absence of a strong counterparty at the bargaining table…” Newsom said in the executive order...Although the California Pharmacists Association applauded the Governor’s “commitment to the healthcare of all Californians and ensuring all patients can continue to have access to affordable, life-saving medications," the organization said in a press release...CPhA declined to say whether it supports a state prescription drug label...READ MORE

Safety net providers are pushing back on the growing use of “2-tiered” policies among payers and pharmacy benefit managers under the 340B Drug Pricing Program that provide lower reimbursement rates for 340B-covered entities compared with non-340B entities...The practice has been challenged in court, finding its way to state legislatures through safety net providers who argue the practice is impacting their ability to serve more patients and offer comprehensive services…HHS has declined to intervene on the issue of 2-tier pricing under the 340B program, with both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Health Resources and Services Administration suggesting that they do not have authority to regulate this practice...READ MORE

Amazon has filed to trademark “Amazon Pharmacy” in Canada, the U.K. and Australia, signaling a potential move into selling prescription drugs outside of the U.S...The ‘Amazon Pharmacy’ branding is relatively new...Filing a trademark doesn’t necessarily mean that international expansion is imminent. But it does suggest Amazon will eventually go global, which is in line with its typical business strategy, and this first crop of trademark filings might signal which countries the company is likely to explore next...READ MORE