Author: Peter

Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc….filed a lawsuit seeking a court order allowing it to promote its post-surgery pain drug, Exparel (bupivacaine), for a wide range of surgeries, which the Food and Drug Administration opposes…Pacira contends that its own marketing is not for off-label use…Exparel,… is approved for administration into the site of surgery to produce post-surgery pain relief…approval was based on studies of its use in bunionectomies and hemorrhoidectomies,…Pacira, however, has promoted it for use in all kinds of surgeries.

Pat Basu, MD, MBA, chief medical officer of Doctor on Demand, discusses legislative issues and technology that could affect pharmacy.

Jessica Kerr, PharmD, CDE, and assistant department chair at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville discusses potential barriers to inhaled insulin, like Afrezza.

Food and Drug Administration…have expressed concerns over likely errors in administering Purdue Pharma's fast-acting oxycodone…(Avridi) that could result in inadequate relief…The drug is designed to be taken every 4-6 hours on an empty stomach…absorption…can be substantially delayed in the presence of food,.. "food effect" may reduce the effectiveness and safety of the drug,.. Inadequate pain control caused by presence of food could lead to overdosing…

International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists submitted comments on the Food & Drug Administration's underestimated time and cost burden of reporting adverse events by 503B outsourcing facilities.

Stuck in a pharmacy career rut? Not interested in the traditional job options in retail, independent, or hospital pharmacy? Here are 4 nontraditional jobs for pharmacists:

• NASA Pharmacist
• Nuclear Pharmacist
• Prison Pharmacist
• Medical Writer

Roche Chief Executive Severin Schwan criticized Britain's health system…after two of the company's cancer drugs were dropped from use, calling it a "stupid" way to control costs that could jeopardize research in the country… Schwan said there would be also knock-on effects for research in Britain, since if drugs like Avastin were not available as standard then Roche would not be able to do certain clinical trials in the country…Eventually, this will hurt us on the research side in the UK…

AstraZeneca and The University of Manchester…announced a collaboration harnessing clinical bioinformatics to deliver personalised healthcare for cancer patients. The five-year agreement will see the organisations apply clinical trial bioinformatics to better identify the right cancer treatment for the right patient at the right time…AstraZeneca will provide a total of £11.5 million ($17.5million) to support clinical bioinformatics research led by…the…Centre for Cancer Biomarker Sciences at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre.

Because current health care practice focuses on diagnosing and prescribing, the need to taper, reduce, or discontinue inappropriate medication therapy receives relatively little attention. Few clinical guidelines cover drug deprescribing, and this lack of evidence-based direction contributes to prescribers’ hesitancy or reluctance to touch treatment regimens that may have originated from a different practice setting. But failure to deprescribe medications that are contributing to adverse side effects can have serious consequences,...

Lisa Kroon, PharmD, CDE, professor and department chairperson of clinical pharmacy at University of California, San Francisco, School of Pharmacy, talks about some ways smoking cessation can improve patient health and manage chronic conditions.