Author: Peter

A federal judge...ordered "pharma bro" scammer Martin Shkreli to immediately pay a defrauded hedge fund investor about $388,000 in restitution, roughly half of what the investor asked for… The order comes a month after Judge Kiyo Matsumoto sentenced Shkreli to seven years in prison for defrauding that investor, Richard Kocher, and a number other people, as well as for conspiring to manipulate stock shares...In addition to his prison sentence, Matsumoto also imposed a fine of $75,000 on the 35-year-old Shkreli and ordered him to forfeit almost $7.4 million in assets to the federal government...

Aurora Cannabis and CanniMed Therapeutics announced...a letter of intent to become a preferred supplier of medical cannabis to Pharmasave, member-governed cooperative of more than 650 independently owned community pharmacies...Pharmasave joins two other national pharmacy chains...These supply agreements allow...strong penetration into...a sizable portion of the medical cannabis market...pharmacists need to be prepared to fulfill their role as medication experts in the area of medical cannabis...This includes how medical cannabis may affect other medications the patient may take, any health conditions they might have and insights on how to identify and address mental health and addiction concerns in patients...

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

When supporters rolled out what they called "penny-a-pill" legislation last month, they described it as a bipartisan effort to raise needed money to combat the opioid overdose epidemic ...But the legislation faces an uncertain future after strong opposition from pharmaceutical companies and some business interests...The legislation...would charge pharmaceutical companies a fee for every opioid painkiller they sell. That would raise an estimated $20 million in continued funding for abuse prevention efforts, wider access to the overdose medication naloxone and more resources for treatment...the House version of the bill no longer includes the fee on manufacturers. Instead, money for the programs would come out of the state general fund, which would be one-time funding.

Nevada’s amphetamine death rate is highest in the nation and will soon eclipse the state’s prescription opioid death rate if current trends continue, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...The death rate in Nevada attributed to “psychostimulants” — a class of drugs that includes methamphetamine, ecstasy and ADHD prescription drugs like Adderall and Ritalin — hit 7.5 per 100,00 in 2016, up nearly 32 percent from 2015. Prescription opioid deaths fell about 9 percent in the same time period, from 9.8 per 100,000 to 8.9 per 100,000...unlike opioids, there’s no overdose antidote...if prevention resources were devoted equally to opioid and amphetamine overdose, that could cut down on abuse and, ultimately, death...What’s needed...is public education that stresses that using amphetamines can be lethal, not just from overdose but because they can impact organ function and can be laced with opioids like synthetic fentanyl, a deadly substance...

A crisis mental health clinic in Reno abruptly shut its doors...less than a month after giving up its special community behavioral health clinic status...The nonprofit WestCare said in a statement that it has closed its Reno operations — with the exception of WestCare Homefront, which serves veterans — because of financial shortfalls with government funding partners. Just three weeks earlier, the nonprofit voluntarily gave up its participation in the certified community behavioral health clinic demonstration program but said that it would continue to operate its programs in Reno...WestCare said that its ability to provide the multitude of services required of a certified community behavioral health center was “significantly diminished” after the departure of a clinical supervisor and three clinical social worker interns...WestCare...will continue to operate the Community Triage Center and our other programs in Reno...

CVS Health is now planning to treat kidney failure patients, as the national drugstore chain continues to branch deeper into monitoring and providing care...it will offer home dialysis for patients through its Coram business, and it is working with another unspecified company to develop a new device for that...The companies will start a clinical trial of their device this year...CVS Health will begin its expansion into kidney care with a program that helps identify chronic kidney disease early. It will then connect those patients with nurses for training and nutritional counseling to help delay the need for dialysis...CVS Health Corp. has been broadening its reach beyond drugstores for years. It also runs a pharmacy benefit management business and is spending $69 billion to buy the insurer Aetna. It also has been expanding care offered through its more than 9,800 locations (1,100 clinics).

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has laid out a bevy of initiatives that officials said would reduce drug prices for patients covered by the Medicare Part D prescription drug program—but they have made no decisions yet...That issue is whether the discounts that pharmacy benefit managers negotiate for drugs—the “rebates” that lawmakers have been raising questions about in recent months—as well as other fees, should go toward lowering the price that a patient pays at the pharmacy...“While we are not finalizing any policy in this area at this time, we appreciate the detailed submissions from stakeholders, and we are evaluating these comments as we consider future proposals,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma...It’s unclear whether lowering the amount of money that the patient pays at the pharmacy would actually lower the total amount of health care spending. According to an analysis by CMS that was part of the proposed rule in November, patients would indeed pay less, but the government would pay 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

A foreign pharmaceutical company has become entangled in bribery allegations in China, in spite of efforts in fighting rampant commercial corruption in the medical sector...An employee at Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis International AG's affiliate in China (Beijing Novartis Pharma Co., Ltd) accused the drugmaker of money laundering via funding fake academic activities…To promote the company's new drugs such as benazepril and DIOVAN tablets, the company held fake academic activities and paid clinical doctors kickbacks…Novartis...agreed to pay $25 million in 2016 to settle charges that it violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when its China-based subsidiaries engaged in pay-to-prescribe schemes to increase sales...Novartis said...that the company has launched an investigation into the claim, and promised to take serious measures against any practices that violate rules and regulations...