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Endo International Plc and Allergan Plc have agreed to pay $15 million to avoid going to trial...in a landmark case by two Ohio counties accusing various drug manufacturers and distributors of fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic...The tentative deals...came ahead of the first trial to result from 2,000 lawsuits pending in federal court in Cleveland largely by local governments seeking to hold drug companies responsible for the deadly epidemic...The accords are the first to result from the counties’ cases, which were selected for the first bellwether, or test, trial in the litigation to allow parties to gauge the value of the remaining claims and inform potential settlement talks...READ MORE

As the Oct. 31 deadline for Britain to leave the European Union approaches, health professionals are warning that shortages of some medicines could worsen in Europe in the event of a no-deal Brexit...Britain’s food and drink lobby warned last week that the country would experience shortages of some fresh foods if there is a disorderly no-deal Brexit. Pharmaceutical companies have expressed similar concerns about medicines, and some have reserved air freight capacity to fly in supplies if needed…But the impact on medical supplies will also be felt beyond Britain. About 45 million packs of medicines are shipped from Britain to the rest of the bloc every month...Experts say some disruption is inevitable if Britain leaves the EU without a deal. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will lead his country out of the EU...without a deal if the EU refuses to negotiate a new divorce agreement...READ MORE

The Nevada Independent filed a lawsuit...against the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services seeking access to a number of records related to the state’s 2017 diabetes drug pricing transparency law...The Independent filed two records requests this year seeking copies of annual reports submitted by diabetes drug companies and the drug pricing middlemen who help sell them to the state…The annual reports are required to explain how and why a drug price spikes over time...But the state has denied much of both requests on the grounds that such information is exempt from state public records law because of a federal trade secret law...READ MORE

The Trump Administration's Department of Health and Human Services has officially proposed legalizing the importation of drugs from Canada...Canadians’ reactions provide an important perspective demonstrating why drug importation will harm the U.S...Despite assurances from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canadians are worried that the U.S. proposal will impose severe costs on Canadians. Their concerns are well founded. Typical of their reaction, the Canadian Pharmacists Association has noted that...the Canadian medicine supply is not equipped to support both Canadian and U.S. consumers, and will make existing drug shortages in Canada even worse, disrupting patients’ access to their medications. Drug shortages have ‘greatly increased’ in the last 3-5 years according to a newly released survey of Canadian pharmacists...READ MORE

About five years ago, Nevada started taking high-profile steps toward tackling the opioid crisis. There were bills to curb doctor-shopping and over-prescribing in 2015 and 2017, a statewide opioid summit in 2016 and a cascade of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers from the state and local governments in the past few years...But has the growing awareness and response made a dent in the epidemic?...Scores of law enforcement, treatment professionals, elected officials and others gathered in Las Vegas this week for a two-day conference where they assessed progress and exchanged ideas on how to better tackle opioid abuse...Here are some takeaways from the event:...READ MORE

Medicare and Medicaid will cover CAR-T cell therapies...a decision that helps address, but doesn't fully solve, the reimbursement challenges that have hampered uptake of the pricey cancer drugs...One major hang-up is reimbursement. Kymriah costs $475,000 for pediatric and young adult patients with leukemia and both therapies are priced at $373,000 to treat lymphoma in adults...Under regulations published this month, Medicare will reimburse at least 65% of the treatment's cost, or about $242,000, through Part B...That will give hospitals surety they will receive payment for the drug, yet doesn't necessarily make whole the full cost of treating a patient with CAR-T. The cell therapies are also still reimbursed via billing codes for bone marrow and stem cell transplants, rather than using a separate identifier...READ MORE

Across the United States and Canada, people are buying cocaine only to discover too late that it contains potentially deadly fentanyl…In all cases, victims "reported thinking they were snorting cocaine," said a team led by Dr. Patil Armenian, of the University of California, San Francisco, in Fresno. Instead, they had ingested cocaine laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid...Overall, "death rates involving cocaine increased by approximately one-third during 2016-2017," the researchers added...READ MORE

Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Naloxone dispensing from retail pharmacies increased from 2012 to 2018, with substantial increases in recent years. Despite increases, in 2018, only one naloxone prescription was dispensed for every 69 high-dose opioid prescriptions. The lowest rates of naloxone dispensing were observed in the most rural counties...What are the implications for public health practice?...READ MORE

Chamber of commerce and trade association health plans are in legal limbo after a federal judge ruled earlier this year that the Trump administration rule allowing them violates the Affordable Care Act...Some associations in Nevada have stopped allowing new businesses into their health plans out of an abundance of caution as the case goes up on appeal, while others have chosen to press forward. The heterogeneous response is the result of the fact that the court’s decision only affects some association health plans and the state Division of Insurance, which oversees the plans, doesn’t know which ones those are...READ MORE