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Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of opioid painkiller OxyContin in patients aged 11 to 16 who have not benefited enough from alternatives….warnings and precautions for pediatric patients are the same as those for adults...

Consumer Reports’ poll shows one-third of Americans hit by high drug prices…Not all surprises are good, especially when that surprise means you pay more for a prescription drug you take all the time. Yet in the last 12 months, that’s exactly what happened...People said they paid an average of $39 above the usual cost for their prescription—and one in 10 said they paid a whopping $100 or more out-of-pocket..

Ashley Talamo, Publisher: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN)...This weekly video program highlights the latest in pharmacy news, product news, and more. (video)

pharma industry group in Australia has warned the government that it needs to do something to relieve the high costs of drug manufacturing in the country or continue to lose exports. Drug exports from Australia have fallen to $2.5 billion from $4 billion in 2012. Industry group Medicines Australia blamed high wages, taxes and a tangle of regulations for discouraging drugmakers from building or expanding there..

..benefits for the estimated 9.6 million users of the Pentagon’s Tricare health system and resulting profits for retail drugstores including those run by CVS Health Corp., Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Rite Aid Corp…Senate negotiators are supporting an Obama administration plan to increase co-payments for military retirees and families over 10 years, while House conferees oppose passing on so much of that cost to veterans.

Sprout Pharmaceuticals is a small drug company with a potentially very big drug – the world’s first pill to boost women’s sex drive….Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce Tuesday whether it has approved Sprout’s drug, Addyi (flibanserin), ..plans to market as the "little pink pill"… Interest in Sprout’s libido pill is expected to run so high that, to curb potential misuse, Sprout has promised the FDA it won’t advertise the drug for 18 months on TV and radio.

Massachusetts is joining the state-level push to tamp down drug prices. Lawmakers are proposing new disclosures about pharma's pricing decisions, just as they are in other states. But unlike California's move to limit price increases, for instance, Massachusetts could actually cap prices on specialty meds… state officials would have the power to limit prices...

It isn't too often that drugmakers and journalists go head to head in court. But as part of Amgen's latest legal battle, it's asking a federal judge to force a reporter to testify about an article he wrote that prompted a shareholder suit against the company and to spell out how he got information about an abandoned clinical trial…. shareholders claiming the company failed to disclose information about the study...

small drugmaker…may succeed…in winning approval for the first drug to boost women's sexual desire…team that founded Sprout Pharmaceuticals is not new to the..business …previous company, Slate Pharmaceuticals, sold an implantable testosterone pellet.. ran afoul of federal rules,… FDA sent Slate an 11-page warning letter…"I can't remember seeing a warning letter with so many examples of misbranding in it," said Fugh-Berman, who … signed a petition urging the FDA to reject Addyi (flibanserin)

England's Cancer Drugs Fund has been ..dealing with budget overruns and backlash from drugmakers and patients unhappy with the fund's decision to ax certain meds from its list…National Institute of Health and Care Excellence will turn the CDF into a "managed access" fund for cancer drugs,… original plans for the CDF, established …essentially bypass NICE and provide funding for treatments rejected by the cost-effectiveness gatekeeper.