Author: Peter

Jon Roth, CEO of the California Pharmacists Association, explains how pharmacists can help prepare their patients for natural disasters.

Theodore Pikoulas, PharmD, BCPP, the Associate Director of Behavioral Health Pharmacy Programs for Community Care of North Carolina, discusses the roles that pharmacists can play on interdisciplinary health care teams.

Sullivan University College of Pharmacy plans to hold its inaugural Pharmacy Camp for high school students in the classes of 2016, 2017 and 2018 who are interested in pursuing a career in pharmacy. The deadline to apply is April 18...Students will be able to stay on campus and experience the world of pharmacy and college...through classroom and lab activities...The Pharmacy Camp will enable students to experience the true reality, excitement and opportunities of attending college and pursuing a career in pharmacy...

An Illinois-based psychiatrist has been sentenced to 9 months in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $600,000 for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in pharmaceutical industry kickbacks...Michael J. Reinstein, MD, was convicted of accepting payments from industry in the form of consulting fees, entertainment, and all-expense-paid vacations in exchange for prescribing and promoting first the brand-name version and then the generic version of the antipsychotic clozapine to thousands of indigent elderly patients in Chicago-area nursing homes and hospitals...In addition to the 9-month sentence, ordered by US District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, Dr Reinstein was ordered to forfeit $592,000 and perform 120 hours of community service following his release from federal prison...Dr Reinstein fully cooperated with the government in its ongoing investigation into healthcare practices in the Chicago area...In recognition of this cooperation...sentence was reduced to 9 months in a federal prison.

Hoping to save a few bucks on your prescription, or just trying to avoid a trip to the drugstore?...While mail order can be a good option, it can also be a hassle, and savings aren’t guaranteed...using mail order can be easy, it could lead to communication errors or safety problems...The problem...is that medications may not arrive on time, which can be dangerous for people who rely on lifesaving drugs...The opposite problem can happen, too: Mail order pharmacies might auto-renew your prescriptions without confirming you’re still taking a drug or whether your dosage has changed. When possible, pick a service that will alert you before they ship out any medication...Medicare Part D drug plans require mail order pharmacies to get the okay from a patient or caregiver before shipping a new prescription or refill...Whether you shop in store or by mail order, once you find a pharmacy that fits your needs, our medical consultants strongly recommend you fill all your prescriptions there whenever possible. That way one pharmacy has a complete record of what you’re taking and can flag any potentially dangerous interactions. That might not be feasible, say, if you get your blood pressure drug through mail order and your doctor prescribes a post-surgery pain medicine that you need right away. When that happens, let each pharmacy know all the medications you're taking and update them regularly on any changes.

Benzer Pharmacy, listed in the top 30% of fastest growing companies by Inc. magazine in 2015, announced... that it is looking to expand the reach of its more than 50 locations in nine states by offering a franchise opportunity to independents...Benzer Pharmacy is now offering a franchise opportunity for those looking to start a new pharmacy and a conversion opportunity for pharmacies currently in operation...To thrive in this industry, independent pharmacy owners need to collaborate under one unique yet individual brand...Benzer Specialty Pharmacy offers a hub and spoke specialty model for independent pharmacies. The pharmacy is currently in process of getting accredited with the Accreditation Commission for health Care for specialty pharmacy...

LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a leading provider of data, analytics and technology, on Monday announced the rebranding of Health Market Science, its most recent acquisition, as LexisNexis Risk Solutions in the Pharmacy market. The rebranding initiative reflects the organization’s commitment to combine its industry-leading public records footprint and prescriber data, leveraging analytics and big data technology in the pharmacy space...Over the last four years...we have...achieved – a very specific course for growth within the health care data analytics market, and the pharmacy space has been a top priority since day one...We are pleased to have partnered with all of the major retail pharmacy chains and the majority of the Pharmacy Benefit Managers...In a market with an increasingly stringent and complex regulatory environment, pharmacies without the ability to perform real-time compliance checks put themselves at risk. By combining the referential database with the company’s public records footprint, analytics and big data technology, LexisNexis Risk Solutions can offer a continuum of prescriber data assets, analytics and services that allow pharmacy customers to remain compliant.

National Institutes of Health officials just wisely rejected a petition, supported by 51 congressmen, to exercise "march-in" rights to discourage drug "price-gouging." The proposal didn't merely violate the explicit intent of a decades-old statute — the Bayh-Dole Act — it also revealed the legislators' ignorance of drug development and would have devastated medical innovation, while doing nothing to bring down drug costs...The act allows the federal government to "march in" and seize the intellectual property rights of the inventor and grant a license to "a responsible applicant or applicants" under two highly unlikely conditions...First, if the patentee and its licensee have not taken effective steps to achieve "practical application" of the subject invention — in other words, if they're just sitting on it — the government can license the patent to someone who will develop it...The second condition is met when government action is necessary to alleviate health or safety needs that are not being satisfied by the rights holder...march-in rights would not necessarily lower drug prices. March-in rights do not empower the government to control prices — they only allow the NIH to increase competition by giving additional companies the right to utilize drug patents that were directly derived from the government-funded research...Encouraging the government to seize patent rights in a non-emergency situation is a great way to discourage firms from developing and producing any new drugs...

Based on the latest update to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s Manual of Policies and Procedures, the Food and Drug Administration is looking to create more competition among generics — particularly for generics made by a single manufacturer... The updated MAPP outlines situations in which abbreviated new drug applications submitted by generics manufacturers will be eligible for an expedited review process, including submissions related to drug shortages, and legal requirements. Among them is the potential for expedited review for ANDAs related to what the agency calls "sole-source drugs" — drugs whose generic is manufactured by a single company...Submissions for drug products for which there is only approved product listed in the Prescription Drug Product List…of FDA’s Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations...and for which there are no blocking patents or exclusivities may receive expedited review...

McKesson Corp. shares fell after the drug distributor said Wednesday night that it will fire 1,600 people, or about 4 percent of its U.S. workforce, to cut costs after losing some key customers...shares dropped 3.5 percent to $150.53...lost 32 percent in the past 12 months...The company began a strategic review...and determined that reductions to our workforce would be necessary to align our cost structure with our business needs...McKesson’s business has been hurt by the expiration of a contract with Optum...and changes in contracts with Omnicare Inc...and Target Corp...The company has been making acquisitions to boost growth. McKesson purchased Rexall Health, Canada’s No. 2 drugstore chain, for $2.23 billion in early March, and bought two oncology companies in February for $1.2 billion.