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The final year of pharmacy school is a truly exciting time…and it’s finally time to decide which direction to start a career within the honorable pharmacy profession...One major decision many pharmacy students struggle with is whether to pursue post-graduate pharmacy residency training…I believe residencies play an important role in the advancement of the pharmacy profession today…I do not believe that going into a residency program is the right course of action for all graduating pharmacists…I pose the following 5 reasons not to pursue a pharmacy residency. Note that this is meant to provoke self-reflection during the decision-making process, and potential applicants are additionally encouraged to explore all opportunities at hand.

1. Because you feel you feel obligated to do a pharmacy residency.
2. Because you should stay in college.
3. Because you should do a pharmacy fellowship instead.
4. Because a pharmacy residency is the wrong financial decision for you.
5. Because a pharmacy residency is the wrong personal decision for you.

9 in 10 industries report PHI breaches; many unaware protected data exists within company records…It's not just hospitals. Or even payers. Some 392 million health records have been accessed in 1,931 protected health information breaches across a staggering 90 percent of industries, according to preliminary findings from a new Verizon report…These industries, across 25 countries, have seen health insurance information, personnel files or other data outside of traditional healthcare settings or industries stolen…"What makes our findings even more troubling is that many sectors - especially those outside of the healthcare industry - aren't even aware that they hold this type of data,"…Unlike with other data breaches, PHI breaches face an equal number of internal and external hackers…hacker tactics are determined by the type of data they're seeking and its location, rather than the country or company size…"This data can be extremely damaging in the hands of those wanting to commit various types of financial fraud,"...

The reputation of India's massive $15 billion drug industry is being threatened at the federal and state level by a lack of properly trained personnel and a shortage of funding that points out possible changes may be needed in how the country finances inspections and quality control work…almost half of all regulatory positions in the country's central and state drug offices remain unfilled and that "existing staff (are) not trained to meet the regulatory requirements of the growing sector."…Officials…said the government's recommendations of having one inspector for 50 manufacturing plants and retail outlets means the country should have 3,200 inspectors, but in reality the country only has 846 currently working…This means key regulatory functions such as inspections are undertaken in an ad-hoc manner…There is a risk of large-scale corruption because inspectors perform sensitive functions, including launching of prosecution...

Roche will close four plants and lay off 1,200 people as it moves toward more biologics and new specialized small-molecule drugs that require less capacity. The drugmaker will take a $1.6 billion charge to cover the move as it plays out over the next 5 years… it will close plants in Florence, SC, in the U.S., as well as plants in Clarecastle, Ireland; Leganes, Spain and Segrate, Italy. The drugmaker said it will look to sell the facilities in hopes of saving jobs, but it said the "transition" will start next year and play out by 2021. The Swiss drugmaker expects restructuring costs to amount to around $600 million in cash out of the total $1.6 billion…

A team of academic staff from the School of Pharmacy have just published research work on their project to further improve upon entrepreneurship and leadership skills which are developed during the MPharm programme…The team, led by Dr Garry Laverty (Queen’s University Belfast School of Pharmacy), developed a “Dragon’s Den” style workshop, in which student groups participated to pitch their business ideas. The workshop, based on the popular BBC TV programme, required students to develop skills in communication, leadership and business promotion…This project has culminated in the publication of research within the American Journal of Pharmacy Education, and the approach adopted in this workshop resulted in the project reaching the penultimate round of The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Teaching Excellence Awards at the 10th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Israeli digital health startup Telesofia Medical has set out to be as specific as possible when it comes to developing personalized video content for health literacy program. Many of its customers are big pharma companies but some are health systems keen to prepare patients for an upcoming procedure or help patients follow a care plan when they are diagnosed with a condition or discharged from the hospital…part of the problem is people hear instructions like “take two pills twice daily” and accept it without really understanding what that means…The problem isn’t with the patient, it is with us not providing easy to understand information...or taking it for granted that patients understand the imparted information correctly…The videos, with content that can be customized by each customer, can include the patient’s care manager, doctor, or another healthcare professional. Depending on the person’s name, age and sex, the video will factor that data and address individuals personally.

Irmat Pharmacy…looks like the neighborhood drugstore it has been since the 1970s…But two years ago it added a new business as a nationwide mail-order dispenser of expensive drugs for acne and other skin conditions…business has prospered…a large pharmacy benefit manager plans to stop doing business with it at the end of this month. Irmat is suing that company, OptumRx…It appears to be the latest skirmish in a budding war between pharmacy benefit managers, which seek to rein in spending on drugs, and mail-order pharmacies, which have been increasingly enlisted by drug manufacturers to help protect their products from being swapped for cheaper generic alternatives…a spokesman for Optum, said Irmat was being removed from Optum’s network because it violated its contract…Irmat receives most of its revenue from dispensing dermatology drugs made by two companies, Galderma and Aqua Pharmaceuticals…mail-order pharmacies say the real reason they are being targeted is that the pharmacy benefit managers own their own mail-order businesses and are trying to stifle competition…

For municipal-bond buyers, the boost from Obamacare is waning…municipal bonds have rallied, delivering 16 percent returns in the past two years as the providers were stuck with fewer unpaid bills…“The effect of the Affordable Care Act is fading,”… “We don’t really have any new states adopting Medicaid so you don’t have that expansion.”…The federal law has provided health-care coverage to 17.6 million Americans as a majority of states expanded access to the Medicaid program for the poor and others bought subsidized insurance. The factors that have driven that growth are now weakening…while rising premiums may cause some consumers to go without or lose their policies for not paying their bills…About 9.9 million people were paying for coverage purchased on the exchanges created by the law as of June 30, a decline of 300,000 from March 31…Department of Health & Human Services estimates that about 9.1 million people will be enrolled by the end of the year…“It’s very safe to bet that a lot of hospitals across the country are not going to see as many people getting insurance as they had expected,” The law…has been a boon to investors who hold tax-exempt bonds sold by hospitals: The securities have delivered outsized returns since then, beating a dozen other revenue-bond sectors, including toll roads, airports and utilities…The bonds’ prices have slipped 0.4 percent over the past month amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as soon as December.

Appeals court invalidates 4 of 5 patents, exposing it to generic compeition come June...Merck & Co.is running low on options after a federal appeals court…again declined to back four patents that would have held at bay for 5 more years generics of the antibiotic Cubicin, the drug that was key to its $9.5 billion buyout of Cubist. Next up may be an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court…In a three-sentence statement...a federal appeals court upheld a fifth patent, but that one expires next June anyway, potentially leaving only months before copies from Hospira and others could launch. The court invalidated four other patents that expire in 2019 and 2020. The company says it is "considering its next steps, which may include seeking further review" at the federal circuit level or the Supreme Court...

Greenhill & Co. CEO Scott Bok discusses the ethics of health care and pharmaceutical companies.