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Justin Gallagher, associate publisher of The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care, From the Managed Markets News Network.

Consumers don’t always read the risk information on branded drug websites--even though they say they do, according to new eye-tracking research from the University of Tennessee. Risk disclosures are a hot-button issue in pharma marketing, with some critics accusing brands of downplaying the risks and marketers contending that they follow the rules laid out by the FDA...The key finding? Even though 80% of the participants said they read half or more of the website information, they actually read much less than that and had limited recall of the drug’s risks. Further, the study found consumers focused on the drug’s benefit and generally ignored the risks... Mariea Hoy, who fielded the research...presented the findings to the FTC and has shared the same information with the FDA, also offered some suggestions on how to get people to read more drug risk information, Pharma companies should try to identify why people aren’t reading the risks, she said. Are they trying to avoid negative information? Do they think they already know the risks? Do they discount the risks for themselves, with the it-won’t-happen-to-me mindset known as "optimum bias?"...

Pharmacists are an integral member of the immunization neighborhood and have positioned immunization services as an important patient care offering—a natural fit given the profession’s focus on improving the health outcomes of their patients and communities...To facilitate consistency in the process of serving patients within the context of comprehensive care, the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners in 2014 released the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process. The process is applicable to any practice setting and for any patient care service that pharmacists provide. A new resource being released this fall will provide guidelines on how to build immunizations into this model...Applying the PPCP to immunization services is aimed at adapting the PPCP’s general model—collecting, assessing, planning, implementing, and following up through monitoring and evaluation—to fit immunization practice...We hope that the guide will 1) provide pharmacists with a systematic way of thinking about the immunization process; 2) create a quick reference tool with links and forms for pharmacists to reference during the immunization process; and 3) [serve as] a reference tool for other providers, payers, and public health to understand what to expect from a pharmacy-based immunization encounter...

A drug used to treat lead poisoning is causing a toxic reaction among hospitals and poison control centers after Valeant Pharmaceuticals jacked up the price more than 2,700 percent in a single year...At issue is a decades-old, intravenous treatment for severe and life-threatening cases of lead poisoning, which occur infrequently, but generally require supplies to be on hand...Calcium EDTA, Valeant acquired the drug in 2013…By December 2014...increases took the price to $26,927 (from $950)...Ever since, poison control specialists have been angry, especially since there are few viable options...Their reaction is a case study in the exasperation doctors and hospitals feel at the multitude of price hikes of all sizes that they see month after month...create frustration and squeeze budgets behind the scenes...There’s no justification for the astronomical price increases...which limit availability of the drug to children with life-threatening lead poisoning...

Kelly Walsh, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

The pharmacy technicians on your staff play a pivotal role in the daily activities of the pharmacy, so make sure that they also have a prominent place in your Pharmacy Week (October 16-22) observance — and make a point to recognize their work on National Pharmacy Technician Day.

Kelly Walsh, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

...a group of state health policy makers is offering some novel — and also some familiar — suggestions...These include regulating the pharmaceutical industry as a utility, allowing states to operate as pharmacy benefit managers and waiving some provisions of the Medicaid program...the National Academy for State Health Policy also recommends that states pursue laws that require more transparency from drug makers. And the organization floated some timeworn proposals, such as importing medicines from Canada and prosecuting drug makers for violating consumer protection laws that protect against predatory pricing monopolies..."The proposals in this paper require more dialogue, debate, development, and experimentation. These policy proposals may not be appropriate for all states or agencies, nor for every pharmaceutical product," the working group wrote. "But states need to act and this paper presents a toolbox of options to consider."... the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, the industry trade group. A spokeswoman wrote us to say that "many of the solutions proposed by the Work Group would harm patients and limit their access to life-saving treatments. We hope to begin a dialogue with the National Academy for State Health Policy on solutions that will help states better manage and predict costs while preserving patient access...

Justin Gallagher, associate publisher of The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care, From the Managed Markets News Network...the top stories in managed care included HHS releasing the final rule for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, a commentary on the downside of drug coupons, and the World Health Organization called on countries to enact a soda tax.

Pfizer’s divide-and-conquer approach to Lyrica in the U.K. just hit a wall. The Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that struck down key patent claims on Lyrica and cleared Actavis’ generic of infringing it...The...case centered on a “carve-out” approval for Actavis’ Lyrica generic, a type of regulatory nod that branded drugmakers see as a threat...drugmakers want to prolong their monopoly access to patients, and they use follow-up patents to extend their protection past the time when IP coverage expires on the original compounds...some recent “skinny” regulatory nods--from the FDA as well as international regulatory agencies--that clear generics only for particular indications have complicated those efforts, because they give generics makers an entreé onto the market while so-called method-of-use patents remain in effect...The patent at issue in this case covered Lyrica’s use as a pain treatment; the patent on pregabalin itself, the active ingredient...had already expired. These days, Lyrica is used more often for pain than for its original indication as a seizure drug...The company hopes to now take its fight to the U.K. Supreme Court...Pfizer maintains its strong belief in the validity and importance...of the patent…