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In states where pharmacists were allowed to sell the potentially lifesaving opioid antidote naloxone without a prescription, fewer people died from opioid overdoses...The passage of laws that let pharmacists sell naloxone directly to patients was associated with a nearly 30 percent drop in the number of opioid overdose deaths compared to states without pharmacist dispensing, researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine...When the researchers examined the laws involving naloxone prescriptions, they found that few states had any form of legislation before 2010. By 2016, 47 states had passed some sort of law regarding the life-saving medication, but only nine had laws giving authority to pharmacists to sell naloxone directly to patients...READ MORE

Samantha DiGrande, Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Specialty pharmacies dispense some of the most expensive, sensitive, and life-saving medications to patients, the kinds of medications that can cost more than $100,000 a year. Unfortunately, the way these prescriptions are being filled today is often chaotic and ripe for fraud, is different in each state, and potentially is about to get even worse for patients...When new prescriptions come in to these pharmacies, they go through what is often a very slow prescriber credential verification process that can involve manually calling or looking up licenses for the prescribing physicians on various board websites. When refills arrive, the pharmacies usually don’t verify prescriber licenses at all. The prescriber’s license could have expired, or the physician moved to a new state, had their license revoked, retired, or passed away...This means that patients are sometimes getting drugs from unlicensed prescribers or are being kept waiting for medications because of slow manual verification. It’s a process that lets through a lot of fraud and abuse...READ MORE

Jaime Rosenberg, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

The Trump administration...said it will require drugmakers to disclose the list price of prescription drugs in direct-to-consumer television advertisements, part of the government’s efforts to lower costs for U.S. consumers...The list price would be included if it is equal to or greater than $35 for a month’s supply or the usual course of therapy. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that the 10 most commonly advertised drugs have list prices ranging from $488 to $16,938 per month or usual course of therapy...TV advertising requirement would work to drive down list prices alongside a recently proposed rule aimed at requiring that drug rebates, or discounts, be passed on to Medicare patients when they buy the drugs...The advertising rule...was originally suggested as part of President Donald Trump’s “blueprint” to lower U.S. drug prices...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.

Walgreens is increasing the age to buy tobacco at its drugstores to 21 later this year as the retailer faces possible sanctions from the Food and Drug Administration for allegedly selling to minors...The FDA put Walgreens “on notice” in February, accusing the pharmacy chain of violating rules that prohibit selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to underage buyers. Walgreens, the FDA noted, is currently the top violator among pharmacies that sell tobacco products. Some 22 percent of Walgreens locations inspected by the agency caught employees illegally selling tobacco products to minors...READ MORE

The founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc on Thursday became the highest-ranking pharmaceutical executive to be convicted in a case tied to the U.S. opioid crisis, when he and four colleagues were found guilty of participating in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe an addictive painkiller...A federal jury in Boston found John Kapoor, the drugmaker’s former chairman, and his co-defendants guilty of racketeering conspiracy for engaging in a scheme that also misled insurers into paying for the drug...READ MORE

Collaborative Practice Agreements

Finally, Registered Pharmacists Can Collect Specimens!

National Pharmacy Compliance News

FDA Launches Pilot Program to Improve Security of Drug Supply Chain With an Innovative Approach

FDA Announces New Efforts to Increase Oversight and Strengthen Regulation of Dietary Supplements

Trump Administration Releases National Drug Control Strategy to Reduce Drug Trafficking and Abuse

• Prevention
• Treatment and recovery recommendations
• Reducing availability

New Study Predicts Opioid Epidemic Will Worsen Over the Next Decade

FDA Warns of Potential Blood Pressure Medication Shortages Due to Recalls

FDA Releases Two Draft Guidances Related to REMS Programs

• REMS Assessment: Planning and Reporting Guidance for Industry
• Survey Methodologies to Assess REMS Goals That Relate to Knowledge
  Guidance for Industry

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Federal prosecutors charged drug distributor Rochester Drug Cooperative and its former CEO with drug trafficking charges...the first criminal charges for a pharmaceutical company and executives in the nation's ongoing opioid crisis... This prosecution is the first of its kind: executives of a pharmaceutical distributor and the distributor itself have been charged with drug trafficking...The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York charged Rochester Drug Cooperative...with "knowingly and intentionally" violating federal narcotics laws "by distributing dangerous, highly addictive opioids to pharmacy customers that it knew were being sold and used illicitly,"...RDC was also charged with failing to properly report thousands of suspicious orders of oxycodone, fentanyl and other controlled substances to the Drug Enforcement Agency...READ MORE