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Experts from the CVS Health Research Institute,.. are calling for a reconsideration of treatment guidelines for high cholesterol as PCSK9 inhibitors hit the market…"As PCSK9 inhibitors become available, the current cholesterol management guidelines do not provide clarity as to how these expensive new medications could fit in the treatment paradigm, potentially resulting in some scenarios where a prescriber could consider a PCSK9 inhibitor for a low-risk patient,"

House to FDA: who's in charge clinical trial manufacturing? US politicians have given the NIH and FDA until Friday to answer questions about oversight at a contaminated National Institutes of Health clinical trial manufacturing site…what are the FDA’s obligations for inspecting non-commercial drug production?...

What this Study Adds

• Our model systematically categorized components of pharmacist intervention in care transition programs. Study heterogeneity enabled a best evidence synthesis to elucidate effective components.
• This review revealed that multifaceted programs should combine medication reconciliation with active patient counseling and a clinical medication review. Care continuity can be secured by integrating pharmacists across settings and providing them with patients’ clinical background.
• Collaborating with other health care professionals is crucial to increase the effectiveness of pharmacist intervention.

It finally seems as if the pharmacy birth control wars are behind us, which I hope will prove that medication adherence isn't the type of rocket-science problem requiring academic studies by professors pondering how to get people to take their medicine. No, that wasn't an accidental grafting of two different sentences you just read. Stick with me, and by the end of the column you'll understand.

Drew Armstrong reports on the rising cost of drugs. He speaks on "Bloomberg Markets." (video)

Dr Bonadonna,…heads a partnership between GSK and Save the Children which aims to save the lives of one million children…Instead of simply donating money, the drug company is donating the expertise of its employees to create cheap and simple solutions to deadly third world problems…"It’s a philosophy that goes beyond volunteering and fundraising, it uses the skills of the company and its employees,"....

From today the websites of the British Pharmacopeia, pharmacopoeia.co.uk and pharmacopoeia.com (previously pharmacopoeia.gov.uk) will be brought together into one integrated, new look website www.pharmacopoeia.com. The British Pharmacopoeia is the official collection of standards for UK medicinal products and pharmaceutical substances. Produced by the British Pharmacopoeia Commission Secretariat of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the BP makes an important contribution to public health by setting publicly available standards for the quality of medicines.

Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc is the talk of the town…the company released promising secondary endpoint results from the Phase 2 trial of a new drug targeting interstitial cystitis, a painful bladder condition…"The encouraging effect…observed on the primary endpoint of reduction in pain…underscore the potential of AQX-1125 as a once daily, oral therapy for this debilitating disease,"...

This report updates the 2014 recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices regarding the use of seasonal influenza vaccines. Updated information for the 2015–16 season includes

• antigenic composition of U.S. seasonal influenza vaccines;
• information on influenza vaccine products expected to be available for the 2015–16 season;
• an updated algorithm for determining the appropriate number of doses for children aged 6 months through 8 years; and
• recommendations for the use of live attenuated influenza vaccine and inactivated influenza vaccine when either is available,…

China has moved quickly to further scrap a 15% markup on state-run hospital drug sales, this time targeting all county-level public hospitals by the end of October,…. comprehensive healthcare reform plan centered on the nation's public hospital system, including seeking more private hospitals and clinics and changes to the entire medical system on pay and subsidies.