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...first FDA-approved drug (Addyi,flibanserin) for female sexual dysfunction is available in the United States today (Oct. 17), marking a much-anticipated milestone for women who struggle with sexual desire. Sprout, the pharmaceutical company behind the drug, has spent $50m to develop the treatment. But female sexual desire is biologically complex, and this drug won’t work like similar products for men. Here are the key details:

• Who is it for?
• How does it work?
• What are the effects?
• What are the risks?
• How much will it cost?

Health systems’ interest in gaining entry to the specialty-pharmacy market should not be a surprise, considering that specialty drug sales are growing at rates reported to be approximately 19% per year… the 340B pricing program could offer substantial incentives to certain qualifying health systems when they retain specialty-pharmacy prescriptions… Add in the trend of health systems’ entry into risk-sharing contracts, the formation of accountable care organizations, and the consolidation and merging of specialist physician practices… Health systems bring a number of advantages to the specialty marketplace… full integration and availability of clinical information to multidisciplinary health care providers allows for a level of care coordination that is unlikely to be matched by unaffiliated pharmacies.

Hortense Jones of Durham...2015 Pharmacy Technician of the Year…Jones works at Durham’s Lincoln Community Health Center as the pharmacy technician supervisor, where she oversees a team of 11 pharmacy technicians…"I am truly humbled by this honor, but this is about our pharmacy team more than me," Jones said. "My leadership philosophy is to find the strengths of each employee and build an essential role for them on the team that matches their assets. As a result, they become fully engaged in advancing patient safety."

Pharmacy education is a greatly debated topic. Since Albert Benjamin Prescott revolutionized our practice in the early 19th century with the abandonment of the apprenticeship model in favor of didactic learning, the process of developing pharmacists has undergone many changes.

Ronna B. Hauser, PharmD, vice president of pharmacy affairs for the National Community Pharmacists Association,  discusses what pharmacists need to know about the memorandum of understanding regarding the interstate shipment of compounds.

James Schiffer, RPh, associate at Allegaert Berger & Vogel LLC, discusses some of the DEA's requirements for handling controlled substances.

New Jersey governor…took action…by signing a bill aimed at prohibiting the sale of medications containing dextromethorphan,…found in…over-the-counter cold medications, to any person under the age of 18 unless they have a prescription. New Jersey is the ninth state to implement a law restricting the sale of DXM-containing products…"The enactment of similar legislation in states across the country has indicated that limiting teen access to DXM is a proven way to prevent abuse,"…"We are confident that this law will further allow parents to prevent abuse among their children, while continuing to ensure access for the millions of adults and families who responsibly use products containing DXM to treat common cough symptoms."

Students in Alaska will no longer have to leave their home state to pursue a pharmacy degree...University of Alaska Anchorage and Idaho State University are partnering on a joint pharmacy program that will launch next fall with 10 to 15 students…One of the goals of the program is to encourage more students to stay in Alaska for work after graduation…"The premise is that we get pharmacists—clinical pharmacists—who are reared in the state, who are from here, and who will be networked into the pharmacy community here, so they stay here,"...

Spending on Medicaid rose nearly 14 percent on average in the last fiscal year, a report has found, largely because of a tide of newly eligible enrollees in the 29 states that had expanded the program by then to cover millions more low-income adults….But for most of those states, the per-member, per-month cost of the new enrollees was not higher — in a few cases, in fact, it was lower — than expected…almost all of the additional spending was covered by federal funds, which are paying the entire cost of expanding Medicaid through 2016 and at least 90 percent thereafter… states should be worried less about their eventual 10 percent share of the cost of expanding Medicaid than whether the federal government can pay 90 percent of it indefinitely…"We are talking tens of billions of dollars a year here,"…"If I was a state official, I would not count on that money hanging around."

The best-selling brand-name drugs are not necessarily the most-prescribed medications in the United States…IMS Health recently revealed the 50 most-prescribed brand-name drugs and the 50 best-selling brand-name drugs between April 2014 and March 2015…Here are some noteworthy discrepancies between prescription drug sales and prescribing patterns for particular conditions:

1. Hepatitis C
2. Contraceptives
3. Multiple Sclerosis
4. Hypertension
5. HIV
6. Arthritis
7. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
8. Cancer