Author: Peter

Three major U.S. retailers, including Walmart, are removing all 22-ounce bottles of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder from their stores, following the healthcare conglomerate’s recall last week of some bottles due to possible asbestos contamination...CVS Health Corp said...it would remove the bottles from its online store as well, out of caution and to prevent customer confusion. The pharmacy chain said all other sizes of the talc would remain on its shelves...READ MORE

Laura Joszt, 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.

Just a day before a lawsuit by The Nevada Independent to obtain public records through the state’s drug transparency law was set for a hearing and both sides had filed briefs, District Court...has kicked the hearing date to November 19...the state effectively denied two records requests seeking copies of reports submitted to the state by drug companies and pharmaceutical middlemen under the state’s bipartisan insulin pricing transparency law...the state argued that a federal law, the Defend Trade Secrets Act, preempts the state law and makes that information confidential. Its position came in the face of stiff opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, which pushed hard against the bill during the 2017 session and which has sued once already to keep the state from publishing key details...That suit was eventually dropped, but only after DHHS adopted internal policies allowing drug makers to mark those details as trade secrets. In ending legal action, industry lawyers — calling the bill “facially unconstitutional” — left the door open for another lawsuit...READ MORE

Reno is getting its first new full-service hospital in more than a century as Northern Nevada Health System officially broke ground Friday for its new medical center...The Northern Nevada Sierra Medical Center will be built in south Reno, boasting 350,000 square feet of hospital and medical office space as well as 200 private patient rooms...The medical center adds another key piece to Northern Nevada Health System’s portfolio. The company just invested $11.8 million to expand the Northern Nevada Medical Center in Sparks. It is also opening a new ER facility on North McCarran Boulevard in 2020...READ MORE

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether the popular heartburn drug Zantac causes carcinogens to form in the bodies of users, in an effort to fully understand the risks posed by the already recalled drug...The issue of whether ranitidine...causes levels of the probable carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine to rise in users’ bodies has been raised previously by Valisure, an online pharmacy that originally flagged the potential contamination of ranitidine to the FDA...READ MORE

The Valley Health System has a new freestanding emergency department — its second in the Las Vegas Valley...ER at Blue Diamond opened...Sept. 30...“Really, this area of the community didn’t have anything with this level of care,” said Kevin Scott, manager of ER at Blue Diamond...Freestanding emergency departments can improve access to care and are more likely to be in affluent areas...In May, the Clark County Commission adopted a new rule related to freestanding emergency rooms as a result of concerns about facilities unaffiliated with existing hospital systems...Effective June 1, freestanding emergency rooms seeking a business license must accept Medicare and Medicaid, and be in compliance with federal law that requires emergency departments to treat patients regardless of ability to pay...READ MORE

One of the current problems with intraoperative resuscitation is the lack of organization...The “Perioperative Pharmacy Attendance for Intraoperative Codes” safety initiative attempts to tackle this problem by addressing the role of “medication procurement, compounding, and time recording.” Pharmacists can quickly assess and provide dosing recommendations...Pharmacist attendance also allows anesthesia professionals to perform alternative tasks during a code, as they are usually responsible for running the code. The anesthesia team and nursing staff can more efficiently procure equipment and supplies because the pharmacy team is now responsible for obtaining the medications...READ MORE

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Canada’s Liberal government is more likely to pass a universal prescription drug plan after losing its majority in Monday’s election, setting the stage for what would be the biggest shakeup of the country’s public healthcare system since it was created in the 1960s...Universal drug coverage would shake up the country’s C$39.8 billion ($30.4 billion) prescription drug market, and cut drugmakers’ revenue by some C$4.8 billion a year by 2027. It may draw opposition from drugmakers, and from private insurers, who could also lose revenue, as well as deficit hawks...READ MORE

A substantial majority of independent pharmacies say they may close their doors in the next two years, and the main culprits are multi-billion-dollar corporate middlemen who are shaking them down for fees on medicines long after the point of sale, according to a new survey by the National Community Pharmacists Association...“Neighborhood pharmacies are being mugged in broad daylight and no one in Washington is doing anything about it,” said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey. “If Congress or the administration don’t act soon, we’re going to see a wave of layoffs and store closures that will leave many patients stranded without access to a local pharmacist.”...READ MORE