Author: Peter

Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said...that they will slash the U.S. list price of their potent but expensive cholesterol fighter Praluent by 60 percent, as the drugmakers follow a similar move by rival Amgen Inc in hopes of increasing use of the drug...The new list price for Praluent will be $5,850 a year, matching the price Amgen set when it lowered the list of its competing drug, Repatha...Sanofi and Regeneron said they expect the lower-priced Praluent to be available for pharmacies to order in early March. They said the new price should improve patient access and result in lower out-of-pocket costs for U.S. consumers...

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

Drugmakers warned...that if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal next month Britons could miss out on an EU-wide system to fight counterfeit drugs that will go live on Saturday after years of British involvement in building it...Drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies across Europe have worked for more than four years on a system based on a shared database and tamper-proof packages with barcodes that will go live on Saturday, to fulfill the European Union’s Falsified Medicines Directive...“It would be an absolute travesty if NHS patients aren’t part of a system specifically designed to protect them. But that’s exactly what could happen in a ‘no deal’ Brexit,” Rick Greville, Director of Supply Chain at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said in a statement by the lobby group...The European Medicines Verification System will allow dispensing pharmacists to scan drug packages and link up to a database to give patients assurance on the product’s authenticity.

For all the consternation about the lack of medical care in Las Vegas, local officials have had an odd reaction to the opening of a new hospital...Elite Medical Center is near the heart of the Strip and offers emergency care. It opened up last June, giving prospective patients a new option. It could be an expensive one. Elite Medical Center doesn’t accept insurance, so patients have to pay out-of-network rates...“We think that Elite Medical Center, if they want to operate as a hospital in the state, that they should operate as a CMS-certified center and they should be accredited and Medicare-participating,” said Bill Welch, president of the Nevada Hospital Association, which represents more than 60 Nevada facilities. “Without those things, we’re concerned.”

Translated: We don’t want competition from this upstart company.

Johnson & Johnson will put list prices in its drug TV ads. It’s the first pharma to announce that plan, self-regulating ahead of a proposed Trump administration rule that would force all pharma companies to add list prices to TV commercials...J&J pharma arm Janssen will begin with its most prescribed drug, the oral anticoagulant Xarelto, adding both list price and potential out-of-pocket costs to its TV spots later this quarter. It will add prices to its other medicines, too, J&J said in a statement. It’s planning to weigh patient and consumer feedback on the Xarelto changes as it rolls out the follow-ups...J&J’s move combines the Health & Human Services list price mandate with the pricing principle plan that members of the trade association PhRMA agreed upon earlier this year. That plan would offer consumers a broader explanation of costs by linking ads to online or telephone explanations of expected out-of-pocket expenses and insurance coverage.

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.

Samantha DiGrande, 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.

Board Members
Leo Basch, PharmD, RPh, Las Vegas
Robert Sullivan, Reno
Jason Penrod, PharmD, RPh, Reno
Kevin Desmond, RPh, Reno
Wayne Mitchell, PharmD, RPh, Carson City
Melissa Shake, PharmD, RPh, Las Vegas
Jade Jacobo, PharmD, JD, RPh, Las Vegas

Retirement of the Executive Secretary
- Larry L. Pinson, PharmD, RPh

New Reno Office -
985 Damonte Ranch Parkway, Suite 206, Reno, NV 89521.

Board Member Update

Nevada Medicaid Initiates Antibiotics Prior Authorization Criteria - Nevada Department of Health and Human Services

National Pharmacy Compliance News

Final Guidance Documents Address FDA Policies Related to DSCSA

First FDA-Approved Drug Containing Extract From Cannabis Plant to Be Placed in Schedule V

ASHP Guidelines Provide Recommendations for Preventing Patient Harm From Medication Errors

FDA’s Final Guidance Documents Address Compounding and Repackaging of Radiopharmaceuticals

Pharmacy Toolkit Encourages Conversations With Patients About Prescription Opioids

Biosimilars Added to FIP’s Policy on Pharmacists’ Right to Substitute a Medication

FDA Offers CE Course on Reducing Hypoglycemic Events in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes - Leveraging Health Literacy and Patient Preferences to Reduce Hypoglycemic Events in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Many more Americans may be getting opioids for their pets, and veterinarians appear to be prescribing increasingly potent versions of these drugs to animals...The researchers examined data on opioid tablets and patches dispensed or prescribed by 134 veterinarians at an academic small-animal hospital in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2017. Over the decade, the amount of opioids used for creatures like rabbits, birds and reptiles surged 41 percent even though visits to the hospital increased by only 13 percent...

Canadian pharmaceutical industry lobby groups, in an effort to head off a planned crackdown on prescription drug prices, offered to give up C$8.6 billion ($6.6 billion) in revenue over 10 years, freeze prices or reduce the cost of treating rare diseases...Those industry offers did not impress federal officials, coming last year as Canada prepared to expand the powers of a little-known federal watchdog called the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board to reduce the cost of prescription drugs...The government proposals would change the countries Canada compares its prices to, dropping the United States where they are highest, and set a formula to assess cost-effectiveness of medicines...the new rules were scheduled to come into effect last month but have been delayed as the government reviews feedback, which has some wondering if they will ever be implemented...Unlike other countries with universal healthcare, Canada’s government-funded healthcare system does not cover prescription drugs. Most Canadians rely on an expensive patchwork of public and private insurance plans for that. Among industrialized nations, only the United States and Switzerland spend more on prescriptions per capita...