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...the California Life Sciences Association released its industry report...pitting itself again against Massachusetts for the title of being the best state for the pharmaceutical industry...the report found California-based organizations received $3.9 billion in National Institutes of Health grants this year, ahead of Massachusetts, which was second in the nation at $2.7 billion. Additionally, CLSA found California companies had more than 1,300 medicines in the pipeline and roughly 130,000 employees working for 1,500 biopharmaceuticals and medical device companies in 2018..the MassBio report found Massachusetts-based biotechs dominated the initial public offering market last year, making up nearly half of all biotech IPO money and more than a third of biopharma venture capital funding...

The stem cell research and therapeutics company Celprogen has identified and characterized 11 lead compounds for potential drug candidates for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Glioblastoma using its 3D model system...The 3D model system is unique since it represents the data generated closer to in-vivo data, eliminates animal studies, and represents patient’s brain physiological format...poor animal study design and reporting have raised concerns​ about whether current processes are the best way to conduct effective and efficient drug development...3D model systems aim to better inform risk-based decisions in drug development...

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.

In an aggressive push to end hepatitis C in England, health authorities there are in the process of weighing bids in NHS England's “largest ever” drug procurement process. But AbbVie isn’t happy with the negotiations, and it’s suing the health service for treating bidders unfairly...AbbVie, which makes the fast-growing Mavyret, claimed the National Health Service broke procurement rules in its effort to buy hundreds of millions of pounds worth of hepatitis C drugs...The NHS wants to buy the drugs in bulk to keep costs down as it works to eliminate hep C in England by 2025...

Tens of thousands of people in Africa die each year because of fake and counterfeit medication...The drugs are mainly made in China but also in India, Paraguay, Pakistan and the United Kingdom...Almost half the fake and low-quality medicines reported to the World Health Organization between 2013 and 2017 were found to be in sub-Saharan Africa...“Counterfeiters prey on poorer countries more than their richer counterparts, with up to 30 times greater penetration of fakes in the supply chain...The counterfeit drug market is worth around $200 billion worldwide annually...making it the most lucrative trade of illegally copied goods...

The Department of Health and Human Services has recommended a ban on the chemicals in kratom that would make the popular herbal supplement as illegal as heroin or LSD…HHS asserted in a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration that two chemicals in kratom should be classified as Schedule I substances... FDA...has said that kratom is “an opioid” and has been “associated” with dozens of deaths...Kratom should not be used to treat medical conditions, nor should it be used as an alternative to prescription opioids...Some states have already banned kratom, but it’s currently legal at the federal level. It’s sold in different forms, including dry powder and capsules. According to the American Kratom Association, millions of Americans use the substance.

The Food and Drug Administration launched a new app Wednesday to gather data for clinical trials and other research directly from patients...The FDA released the MyStudies app source code to the public, allowing developers and researchers to tailor the app to suit their research needs. The agency designed the app to facilitate the use of real-world data in research...Patients can submit real-world data to the app via their mobile devices. Researchers can then link those data to other electronic health information. The goal is to improve drug development...“Better capture of real world data, collected from a variety of sources, has the potential to make our new drug development process more efficient, improve safety and help lower the cost of product development,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. “Our hope is that the collection of more real world data directly from patients, using a secure app, will lead to more efficient product development and assist with safety monitoring.”

Laura Joszt,  welcome to the Pharmacy Times News Network, 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.

Samantha DiGrande, Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

NACDS president and chief executive officer Steven Anderson, described detailed results of the 2018 Congressional elections from a pharmacy-specific perspective.