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A group of 23 Kentucky hospitals is suing major drugmakers, distributors and retailers for their role in the opioid epidemic just days after a group of Texas hospitals unveiled a similar suit...The civil lawsuit filed...in Warren County, Kentucky, alleges more than 40 major companies such as CVS Health, Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma along with individuals made actions that directly led to hospitals bearing the financial burden of caring for opioid victims. Kentucky is one of several states hit especially hard by the epidemic...The lawsuit said hospitals have had to add or modify services such as hiring additional security and providing more “specialized training for staff to accommodate the rapid rise in opioid-related illnesses,”...READ MORE

The Trump administration issued a new rule that aims to prevent payments to Medicare and Medicaid fraudsters by boosting revocation powers and extending the time before troublesome organizations can rejoin the programs...The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said that the final rule...marks a major turnaround from the agency’s normal approach of attempting to recoup fraudulent payments after the fact...“For too many years, we have played an expensive and inefficient game of ‘whack-a-mole’ with criminals⁠—going after them one at a time⁠—as they steal from our programs,”...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

China has expanded a pilot drug bulk-buying program to almost the entire country in an attempt to negotiate lower prices from drug manufacturers, heaping fresh pressure on multinational pharmaceutical companies and their domestic rivals...The program rolled out last year saw 11 Chinese cities...band together behind a tender process to bulk-buy 25 types of drugs. This caused the price of some medicines to plunge over 90%…The scheme will be expanded to 25 provinces and regions, who will form a league to look for suppliers for these drugs that will be stocked at public hospitals as well as some military and private medical institutions...READ MORE

President Donald Trump is weighing nominating a top executive at the MD Anderson Cancer Center as the next Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, according to multiple reports indicating the Texas oncologist, Stephen Hahn, has become a frontrunner for the post...Hahn...would be a change of course from acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless...who replaced Scott Gottlieb…Under federal rules, Sharpless can't serve on an acting basis in a Senate-confirmed position longer than 210 days after the role becomes vacant — a clock that runs out Nov. 1...Sharpless is still under consideration for the permanent role but...Hahn...has emerged as a favorite...READ MORE

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and lawyers representing local governments both said...that they’re interested in continuing negotiations to settle lawsuits...a day after two state attorneys general told colleagues that their talks with the company were at an impasse and that they expected the company to file imminently for bankruptcy...The statements add another layer of uncertainty to attempts to strike a deal with a company that’s portrayed as a prime villain in the national opioid crisis...READ MORE

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.

Canada’s main pharmaceutical industry lobby group, along with 16 of its member companies, filed a lawsuit...to block new regulations meant to lower patented drug prices, the second legal challenge to a new regime that could eventually reduce prices in the United States as well...Canada published the final regulations in August, despite heavy lobbying from drug companies, which stand to lose revenue as prices drop. The federal government estimates the new rules will save Canadian patients, employers and insurers, including governments, C$13.2 billion ($10 billion) over a decade...lawsuit was filed in federal court and led by Innovative Medicines Canada, which represents major drugmakers in Canada. It is separate from a lawsuit filed last month and focuses on federal patent law, arguing that Canada cannot use regulations to “fundamentally alter” the role of its federal drug price regulator...READ MORE

With greater patient access to CBD, pharmacists will need to be prepared to address potential drug interactions to help patients use these products safely. The FDA has issued numerous warning letters instructing various manufacturers to halt production of OTC CBD products since 2016...Regarding interactions, in vitro studies have illustrated multiple potential drug interactions for CBD. The lack of standardized products somewhat limits the ability to make definitive statements from available research, but there is evidence that CBD is an inhibitor of many CYP450 enzymes including 2D6, 3A4, and 3A5, as well as a potent p-glycoprotein inhibitor...Research also suggests CBD use enhances the effect of opiates, and exhibits other interactions with barbiturates, fluoxetine, sedatives, and antihistamines, as well as having synergistic effects with alcohol...READ MORE

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said...it will offer states more than $1.8 billion in new funding to fight the opioid epidemic...The funds will be used for expanding access to treatments for opioid overdosing and to gather case data from across states…The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will spend $900 million...to help states and territories track overdose data...HHS unit Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is awarding about $932 million to support prevention, treatment and recovery services...READ MORE