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Clients are turning their backs on low-cost economies like India and returning to Infa Group, the Italian API maker says…Economies such as India and China have been viewed as low-cost alternatives to Europe and the US for the supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients, but over the past few years, pharma’s changing demands – coupled with concerns over a drop in quality standards – are seeing some customers return back West…This is certainly the case for the Infa Group, one of many European API makers… has seen a number of its main clients return from Asia...

CVS Health…announced that it is opening Hearing Centers in seven CVS/pharmacy stores in the Dallas and Cleveland markets and will be providing optical services at CVS/pharmacy in five store locations around the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. market…"Hearing and optical services are a great fit with the existing health offerings in our stores, including industry-leading pharmacy products and services, our MinuteClinic walk-in medical clinics and a comprehensive smoking cessation program,"… "By expanding our retail health offerings…we are providing customers a convenient, single destination on their path to better health."

Three scientists…whose discoveries led to the development of potent new drugs against parasitic diseases…won the Nobel Prize for Medicine…Irish-born William Campbell and Japan's Satoshi Omura won half of the prize for discovering avermectin,…used to treat..river blindness and lymphatic filariasis...China's Tu Youyou was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has slashed malaria deaths…She is China's first Nobel laureate in medicine.

75th International Pharmaceutical Federation World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences opened…in Düsseldorf,..the opening ceremony, FIP President Carmen Peña,…called on pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists around the world to ensure that the profession of pharmacy remains relevant and able to respond effectively to the current and future needs of the world’s communities… A way forward is her "Two times two" plan, which she described at the ceremony. It means taking two actions at two levels — one action on professional development and another to promote and defend the profession's interests, each taken at individual and collective levels.

...cleanup of the former American Cyanamid drug manufacturing site in Bridgewater, NJ, has been ongoing for decades. But the EPA this week presented Pfizer with a bill for its share of the cost of cleaning up the superfund site…Justice Department said that the drugmaker has agreed to pay $194 million for the cleanup of 6 disposal areas at the 575-acre site. It will chip in an additional $1 million to reimburse the EPA for costs the agency has already paid out for overseeing cleanup work at the 100-year-old site.

ICD-10 go live date came and went...with many organizations reporting small, if any, hiccups. One of those...was Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center…with CIO John Halamka,.. reporting on his team's first few days…other than a few small refinements, the impact has been unnoticeable…financial system is able to process both ICD-9 and ICD-10 to support patients who were admitted on 9/30 and discharged on 10/1…scorecard listed only five minor issues...which our local teams…were able to…quickly close…thanks to all involved in this extremely smooth go live…Our next steps will be monitoring the coding of the initial inpatient cases and payer submissions along with watching reimbursements over the next 60 days.

Canadians, who have access to one of the most advanced health care systems in the world, spend more than $200 billion on health care, $34 billion of which is on pharmaceuticals…medical services are socialized, government-supported drug benefits are limited to children, the elderly and the poor…drug funding is more akin to that in the United States…Building on the growing need for practical, implementable solutions, the…pharmacy industry…is collaborating to bring forward...initiatives to address the sustainability gap..there are several...currently under way, perhaps the best known is "The Healthcare Imperative" ("9000 Points of Care"). This effort targets key health care system cost drivers…

…Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations finalized today could affect the cost of health care in significant ways…the United States and its 11 Pacific Rim trade partner countries finalized what will be the largest regional trade accord in history…Negotiations were stalled and then extended due in large part to differences over the appropriate amount of time that pharmaceutical companies should enjoy market exclusivity for a new drug…US negotiators eventually conceded and agreed that brand-name drug manufacturers would have a market exclusivity period of 5 to 8 years…current GPhA president…said the agreement brings the generics industry closer to "improv[ing] worldwide patient access to affordable medicines [by] embracing competition from safe, effective biosimilar therapies."...

Government Accountability Office details five barriers to interoperability, while at the same time raising criticism by a former ONC official, who calls the GAO report "incomplete."..GAO delved into interoperability at the request of Congressional leaders who asked the watchdog to report on the status of efforts by entities other than the federal government to develop infrastructure that could lead to nationwide interoperability of health information…most of these initiatives remain works in progress…GAO identified five stubborn barriers to interoperability..

1. Insufficiencies in health data standards
2. Variation in state privacy rules
3. Difficulty in accurately matching all the right records to the right patient
4. The costs involved in achieving the goals
5. The need for governance and trust among entities to facilitate sharing health information

To celebrate American Pharmacist Month, Rite Aid Corp. has launched its annual "Vote for Your Favorite Pharmacy Team Member Contest."…which runs to Oct. 31, gives customers a chance to win $2,500 in Rite Aid gift cards by nominating a favorite member of their Rite Aid pharmacy team...Now in its 12th year, the contest is designed to recognize Rite Aid pharmacy associates — including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, pharmacy managers, pharmacy cashiers and Wellness Ambassadors