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Beginning last summer, several drug manufacturers announced they would no longer extend 340B drug pricing to contract pharmacies. The manufacturers said the restrictions are part of a much-needed adjustment to a program that has seen “egregious markups” and other abuses. But the pharmacies caught up in the crossfire say the policy is having unintended consequences, including compromised patient care...Affected 340B facilities say they also are worried about the financial fallout if the restrictions continue...READ MORE

The Russian Direct Investment Fund announces the launch of vaccination with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus in India...Sputnik V has become the first foreign-made vaccine that is used in India contributing to the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Inoculations with Sputnik V in Hyderabad...followed the arrival of the first batch of the vaccine in India on May 1, 2021...Sputnik V was approved for use in India on April 12, 2021 and granted an emergency use authorization...READ MORE

In the first three months of 2021, Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine pulled in as much revenue as some pharma blockbusters make in an entire year. That’s just the beginning, as Pfizer eyes sales from more than a billion additional doses before the end of 2021...The mRNA-based shot Comirnaty—first to market in the U.S.—reeled in $3.5 billion globally in the first quarter...For the full year, Pfizer projects a whopping $26 billion in Comirnaty sales, based on the 1.6 million doses the company has pledged worldwide...READ MORE

The American Federation of Teachers successfully lobbied the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its guidance on school reopenings, emails show...As the CDC was preparing to issue guidance that it was safe to reopen schools fully in February, emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the AFT was behind the scenes, lobbying the agency and the Biden administration to adjust the guidance to make it friendlier to school closures and hybrid learning...The CDC was preparing to update its guidance to reflect its belief that schools could fully reopen, regardless of community spread of COVID-19...READ MORE

Americans love their vaccine makers. Cases in point? Moderna and Pfizer leaped into the top 10 best-regarded companies in the U.S. in the annual Axios Harris 100 survey…They’re the first biopharma companies to crack the top 10 in the ranking’s 20-year history. Johnson & Johnson, which counts pharma as one of its three divisions, has landed in the top 10 before; this year, it hit No. 72 on the list with a reputation score roughly the same as 2020’s…Meanwhile, Moderna ranked third, while Pfizer came in at No. 7 on the strength of its product and innovation scores, nabbing high marks for vision and culture along the way…READ MORE

Europe’s drug regulator says it’s evaluating an assortment of potential side effects following inoculation with leading COVID-19 vaccines, including heart inflammation, facial swelling and a rare nerve-degenerating disorder. Yet in most circumstances, it’s not clear whether the vaccines are to blame...In AstraZeneca’s case, the European Medicines Agency’s safety committee...said it’s examining reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome among people who received the drugmaker’s COVID-19 vaccine...The agency is tracking the data for all coronavirus shots as part of its routine safety procedures...READ MORE

Quality control problems have already plagued one COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer in Baltimore, Maryland. Now, it appears they’re threatening to trip up a major pandemic therapeutic supplier as well...Eli Lilly employees have accused an executive at the drugmaker’s Branchburg...manufacturing site of altering FDA-required documents in an effort to downplay serious quality control problems...citing internal complaint documents...The complaint, dated April 8, said the executive tasked with quality controls rewrote findings from Lilly’s technical experts at the facility, which produces doses of the company’s COVID-19 antibody treatment bamlanivimab, in order to make them look more favorable...READ MORE

One day, my wife Denise and I went to our local bank with a plastic card and put it in the machine. We had the option of withdrawing either $25 or $50 out of our checking account. The money dropped down in an envelope with the cash inside. This was amazing technology for 1981. I then went to work and pulled out the Smith Corona typewriter and started typing prescription labels...Yesterday, I went to our warehouse club and pulled up to the gas pumps. I took out my phone and waved it at the QR code on the screen. I began pumping my gas without ever getting my wallet out of my pocket. I checked my email and saw I had spent $28.54 on pump #4 at 7:46 am...When I stand in front of my pharmacy computer for 10 hours at a time, I often wonder why this technology seems so far behind the other technology I use daily. If we want to move this profession toward more patient-centric care, we must have the tools to do that. All I ask is that my pharmacy computer have the same technology as my gas pump...READ MORE

In a first for the U.S., the FDA has authorized the use of Pfizer's BioNTech-partnered COVID-19 vaccine for use in adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15—months ahead of the upcoming school year in the fall...The FDA will amend the existing emergency authorization for the vaccine, which was first issued in December, the agency said. Pfizer’s vaccine is currently the only shot allowed in the U.S. for Americans as young as the age 16. The vaccine's two-dose regimen will be the same for adolescents as it is for adults, the agency said...READ MORE

Denmark...removed the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 shot from its vaccination program to investigate reports of rare but potentially dangerous blood clots...Denmark, which has been very cautious with all vaccines, has already taken the AstraZeneca shot out of its vaccination program for the same reason. Both the J&J and AstraZeneca shots are made with similar technology...The Danish Health Authority said in a statement that it “has concluded that the benefits of using the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson do not outweigh the risk of causing the possible adverse effect.”...READ MORE