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Statins are tried-and-true moneymakers, but they also come with their own set of safety concerns…FDA postmarketing safety reports… on side effects for companies producing statin drugs…found that Merck's Zocor, Mevacor and Vytorin were associated with more muscle-related side effects than other drugs in the class…For example, Zocor had 4275 reports of myalgia, 632 reports of myopathy, and 3552 cases of rhabdomyolysis..

People between the ages of 50 and 59 years at an increased risk of heart disease and stroke should take daily low-dose aspirin,…In addition to preventing heart attacks and strokes,…may reduce their risk of colon cancer if they take aspirin for at least 10 years, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force,...Under the Affordable Care Act, the task force's recommendations are used to help set health insurance reimbursement policies.

The European Medicines Agency has started its full medical literature monitoring service...Medical literature…source of information on suspected adverse reactions to medicines…European Union's pharmacovigilance legislation has given EMA responsibility for the monitoring of selected medical literature for a defined list of active substances used in medicines and for entering identified reports of suspected adverse reactions in EudraVigilance,..By reducing duplication of reporting from multiple pharmaceutical companies, the initiative will improve the safety monitoring of medicines by enhancing the quality and consistency of data reported...

Novartis is using an oft-overlooked social network in the pharma world--Pinterest--for one of its campaigns… using the image-oriented site to set up malaria-fighting stories in graphic-novel form…The…Swiss drugmaker designed three boards on Pinterest, including

• "Mosquito Gauntlet"…odyssey of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, through a battery of ruthless technology,..chapter headings such as "The Smack-Down" and "The Puddle of Doom"…tells the story of recent efforts to combat malaria and also mentions Novartis' malaria pipeline at the end.
• "Mosquito Mayhem"…asking viewers to use the company's pins to "build your own mosquito misadventure,"..
• "M-Force Trading Cards"…illustrated trading cards with a "task force" of malaria-fighting superheroes….For example, "Agent Sparrow"

On August 7, 2014, Federal District Court …blocked the Food and Drug Administration from enforcing restrictions on the marketing and promotion of off-label use of the drug icosapent ethyl (Vascepa),..If the case heralds the future of jurisprudence, responsibility for the oversight of the truthfulness of pharmaceutical promotions may shift from the nation’s leading science-based regulatory agency, the FDA, to the courts. If it does, the market for medications in the 21st century may revert to a time of more claims and less evidence to guide clinical care… Judges should refrain from using the First Amendment to undermine core regulatory functions.

Managers of EHR systems share what they like – and what they'd like to see changed..When we set out to survey Healthcare IT News readers about their electronic health record platforms,..survey was limited to readers who were actively engaged in the management or use of an EHR…After asking them to rate the systems numerically, we posed two open-ended questions: "What do you like best?" and "What would you change?"...responses demonstrated a sense of passion about the importance EHRs continue to play in delivering clinical care – and a sincere desire for the systems' continued improvement.

Allscripts , Cerner , Epic , eClinicalWorks , GE Healthcare , McKesson , MEDITECH , NextGen ,Siemens

Abbott Healthcare is challenging an Indian state's accusation that a sample of the company's cough syrup contained excessive levels of codeine,...the laboratory found that a sample of Phensedyl contained more than twice the labeled amount of codeine,..Abbott denied the allegations and urged regulators to not take any action. Abbott said it had found nothing unusual in its own and third party testing of a retained sample from the same batch of Phensedyl....also asked regulators to give it more information about the source of the suspect sample and the manner in which it was collected, so that it could establish whether it was genuine and proper process was followed.

The required Oct. 1 conversion to the ICD-10 coding system will be worth the costs and headaches, supporters say….With up to seven alphanumeric characters in ICD-10 compared with a maximum of four numeric digits in ICD-9, there will be lots more room for the codes to accommodate new medical conditions and procedures. With ICD-9, "we've just run out of space," … Advocates also say ICD-10 will allow providers to keep better track of patient care and aggregate data to perform quality-improvement analysis. It also should give hospital and physician leaders sharper tools for analyzing the impact of new procedures and managing population health. They'll be better able to track individual pracces and identify inappropriate practice variation.

For the seventh consecutive year, Roche been recognised as the Group Leader in sustainability within the Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences Industry…. three elements of sustainability - societal, environmental and economic - are completely integrated into our business practices… Roche has maintained its leadership position in the pharmaceuticals industry…including code of conduct and compliance, risk and crisis management, supply chain management, environmental policy and management, talent attraction and retention...

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia,… has issued a position statement recognising that complementary medicines may have a role in the management or treatment of some conditions and that pharmacists are ideally placed to help consumers make informed decisions on their use…. complementary medicines may be used as an adjunctive therapy with conventional medicines, provided there is evidence to support their use…. PSA strongly encourages all consumers considering taking complementary medicines to first consult their pharmacist for sound, evidence-based advice."… PSA does not support the sale of homeopathy products in pharmacy.