Category:

Pfizer has no problem keeping sales for Viagra flying high in China,… But the company has gotten in hot water for its efforts, as Chinese marketing authorities slapped Pfizer with a fine for paying local drugstores to promote its blockbuster ED med. Pfizer inked deals with four Shanghai pharmacies to display the drug… violating China's drug management rules...

Clark County's top law enforcement officer told a room full of marijuana business owners Thursday that he wants to work with them…Sheriff Joe Lombardo,...made light of the historic nature of his appearance at a lunch meeting of the Las Vegas Medical Marijuana Association…sheriff's in a marijuana (meeting)," he said to laughter…. his two biggest concerns are the prospect of people driving under the influence and the potential for robberies or thefts given the cash-heavy nature of the business…

Italian Ministry of Health has banned compounding pharmacies from preparing drugs containing any of seven APIs after chemists were discovered making dangerous off-label weight loss treatments....ban, backed by the Italian Drug Agency, comes after some compounding pharmacies created unregistered slimming drugs from combinations of APIs not intended for weight control.

• TRIAC/tiratricol 
• fluoxetine and bupropion
• clorazepate
• furosemide
• metformin
• topiramate

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)

A 12-hospital health system is notifying hundreds of its current and former patients that their protected health information has been compromised after discovering an employee was involved in identity theft…Merit Health system based in Jackson, Miss., only learned of the breach after local law enforcement notified them that one of their employees…was under investigation for identity theft,..The employee was allegedly swiping patient files for more than a year undetected,..swiped records containing patient names, Social Security numbers, medical diagnoses data, health plan data and also payment information.

Illinois man (Ram Kamath) pleaded not guilty..to conspiring with an online Canadian pharmacy to smuggle mislabeled, unapproved...counterfeit prescription drugs into the U.S...Federal prosecutors accuse Canadadrugs.com,..and its affiliated companies..selling $78 million in prescription drugs,..mislabeled by having text in a foreign language or missing the required "Rx only" symbol.

Patients of a jailed Las Vegas doctor accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women in his care say they are being told they must pay excessive amounts of money to retrieve their own medical records….they have been told they must pay $20 for the paperwork kept in Dr. Binh Chung's office… may not be in line with Nevada law.

A UK man has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for smuggling illegal erectile dysfunction drugs following an MHRA investigation. Sundeep Amin, 57, pled guilty to 21 counts of importing, possessing and supplying unlicensed medicines. Officers from the UK medicines regulator seized nearly £900,000 ($1.4m) of unlicensed medicines… As well as illegal importation, Amin admitted possession of a large amount of the Class C, Schedule II benzodiazepine Phenazepam, and to laundering money from his crimes..

Money laundering. Customs forms falsifications. Conspiring with a supposedly "impartial"…certification program to sell fake cancer medicines to unsuspecting doctors and clinics — and then giving that certification program’s employee an all-expenses paid trip to a tropical island…disturbing federal indictment unsealed...Department of Justice against CanadaDrugs,..PharmacyChecker,... there are 10 important takeaways,..from the indictment.

1. When they sell to US residents, Canadian Internet pharmacies aren’t really selling drugs from Canada
2. The medicines were fake
3. Cold-chain drugs were stored at too-warm temperatures, returned and then resold to other customers in their adulterated state
4. CanadaDrugs was raking in the profits from the sale of drugs, including counterfeits, to US residents
5. After it became aware of the FDA investigation, CanadaDrugs took steps to cover up its counterfeit drug sales, moving the drugs offshore, and continued selling illegal drugs to US residents
6. CanadaDrugs knowingly engaged in illegal activity, putting patients at risk
7. The Canadian International Pharmacy Association certifies Canadian online pharmacies — and is run, in part, by CanadaDrugs
8. CanadaDrugs lied, and falsified US Customs records to smuggle illegal drugs into the USA
9. PharmacyChecker employee helped store the counterfeit drugs in his garage
10. PharmacyChecker approved CanadaDrugs as legitimate despite knowing that CanadaDrugs used an illegal and unsafe supply chain

..vast majority of patients wants continued access to OTC medications containing pseudoephedrine and opposes making the drugs prescription-only…This conclusion comes from an Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America survey of more than 2000 adults … who experienced cold, cough, flu, asthma, or allergies…71% of patients unfavorably view pharmacies and grocery stores that remove OTC medications containing PSE from their shelves..