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USP released new and revised standards to help ensure the quality of compounded medicines. The updates pertain to the USP General Chapters on compounding nonsterile medicines (USP <795> Pharmaceutical Compounding—Nonsterile Preparations), compounding sterile medicines (USP <797> Pharmaceutical Compounding— Sterile Preparations) and new standards for compounding radiopharmaceutical drugs (USP <825> Radiopharmaceuticals—Preparation, Compounding, Dispensing, and Repackaging)...READ MORE

California, Hawaii, Maine and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits...against the maker of OxyContin (Purdue Pharma) and the company’s former president (Sackler), alleging the firm falsely promoted the drug by downplaying the risk of addiction while it emerged as one of the most widely abused opioids in the U.S...allegations...said the company falsely introduced OxyContin in the 1990s as a safe and effective treatment for chronic pain...However, the California’s lawsuit alleges that Purdue and Sackler knew in 1997 that drugs containing oxycodone...were widely abused. Still, company representatives marketed it as not being addictive and downplayed the potential for abuse, the suit states...READ MORE

Colorado passed a new law to help slow down the ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States. Instead of giving an opioid prescription, doctors can instead recommend the use of medical marijuana to alleviate symptoms of their conditions...A bill that allows doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to patients instead of opioid has been signed into law in Colorado....Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 13, which aims to help curb opioid addiction. The law will be effective starting Aug. 12...READ MORE

The Canadian government has assured the pharmaceutical industry that new features of its plan to cut drug costs would apply only to new medicines, Health Canada said…The new features of the government’s proposed regulations, which would take into account cost-effectiveness of medicines and their likely impact on government budgets, would be limited to new drugs, Health Canada told Innovative Medicines Canada and BIOTECanada, the patented drug industry’s main lobby groups...The original cost-benefit analysis estimated the new regulations would cost drugmakers C$8.6 billion ($6.4 billion) over 10 years. As an alternative to the proposed changes, drugmakers offered to voluntarily give up C$8.6 billion in revenue over the same period...Exactly how much the new rules will reduce prices depends on implementation details that have not yet been decided...READ MORE

After reviewing tens of millions of insurance claims for the country's 49 most popular brand-name prescription drugs, a team from Scripps Research Translational Institute found that net prices rose by a median of 76 percent from January 2012 through December 2017 -- with most products going up once or twice per year...The substantial price increases were not limited to drugs that recently entered the marketplace, as one might expect, or to those lacking generic equivalents. In addition, the increases often were "highly correlated" with price bumps by competitors...READ MORE

A website launched by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly earlier this year leads with a daunting statement about the price of its diabetes drug Trulicity: “Drug prices can be confusing,” it says. That’s for sure, and thanks to a new mandate from the Trump administration, consumers could find themselves even more confused...Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in May that it will require drugmakers to include “list prices” in television ads for all medicines covered by Medicare or Medicaid that cost $35 or more for a one-month supply or for a full course. ..The confusion for consumers revolves around “list price.”...That’s the initial price charged to federal and private insurers and pharmacy-benefits managers. It’s not the copayment or retail price that most consumers end up paying. And list prices can be vastly different from the average American’s out-of-pocket cost for prescriptions...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

Illicit chemical knock-offs of the extremely potent opioid fentanyl would be put permanently in the same legal class as heroin to boost prosecutions of traffickers and makers of the drugs, under a proposal to be unveiled...by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration...The new classification is meant to help fight a proliferation of chemical look-alikes of fentanyl, known as analogues...DEA Acting Chief Operations Officer Greg Cherundolo is set to go before a Senate committee...to propose that Congress make the measure permanent so that cases against various analogues will not be undercut when the temporary ban lapses...READ MORE

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores RxIMPACT program has launched an Action Alert, urging Congress to provide “DIR fee” relief in time to save pharmacies and to reduce seniors’ out-of-pocket drug costs...pharmacy advocates are contacting U.S. Senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to build support for the Phair Pricing Act (H.R. 1034/S. 640). The bill would do what a recent Medicare rule left undone: providing relief from abusive pharmacy direct and indirect remuneration fees. The goal is to assure this is part of a drug-pricing bill that is enacted soon...“If our government is serious about stopping this unacceptable treatment of pharmacies, about reducing patients’ drug costs at the pharmacy counter, and about reducing overall healthcare costs, then they need to close this loophole and end the abuses of pharmacy DIR fees now,” said NACDS president and chief executive officer Steven Anderson...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.