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Message From the Executive Secretary, Larry Pinson - It is with mixed emotions that I announce my decision to retire, effective sometime within the next year, after over 22 years of being associated in one way or another with the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy.

New Executive Secretary Announced (The Ultimate Bearcat!) - J. David (“Dave”) Wuest, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and hence an avid Bearcat fan, has been selected to succeed Executive Secretary Larry Pinson upon Larry’s pending retirement in 2018.

Regulatory Update

SB 59 requires the uploading of Schedule V opioid medications into the state’s prescription monitoring database.
SB 337 authorizes a registered pharmacist to manipulate a person for the collection of specimens.
SB 131 requires each retail community pharmacy in the state to provide a prescription reader upon the request of a person to whom a drug is dispensed or advice on obtaining a prescription reader.
SB 260 authorizes a pharmacist who has entered into a valid collaborative practice agreement (CPA) to engage in the collaborative practice of pharmacy and collaborative drug therapy management in the retail setting.
SB 171 requires retail pharmacies in Nevada to post instructions for the safe disposal of unused drugs.   Assembly Bill 474 - many requirements on practitioners using CS to treat patients...

Bowl of Hygeia Recipient 2017 - Congratulations to Mark C. Decerbo

Friendly Reminder - Technicians-in-training must have a separate registration for each individual pharmacy in which they receive their training.

Is Your Pharmacy Helping or Hindering the Health of Nevadans? - Adults may grow up, but they never outgrow the need for vaccines.

.Pharmacy Domain Signals Safety on the Web - With only 4% of websites selling pre­scription drugs online following United States pharmacy laws and practice stan­dards, consumers seeking medications online are faced with the daunting task of finding a safe site. To assist consumers and those legitimate pharmacies with an online presence, NABP has streamlined its website verification programs.

Quality Processes, Risk Management, and Culture: HR-Related Policies That Conflict With a Just Culture

AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse Promotes Safe Storage, Disposal of Opioids

CDC Guide Shows Importance of Physicians, Pharmacists Working Together

FIP Report Shows Value of Pharmacists’ Role in Consumers’ Self-Care

FDA Restricts Use of Codeine and Tramadol Medicines in Children; Recommends Against Use in Breastfeeding Women

AVMA Warns Pharmacists and Pet Owners About Xylitol Pharmaceutical Products

CDC Publishes Guide to Help Pharmacists Initiate CPAs With Prescribers

DEA Releases New Edition of Drugs of Abuse Resource Guide - 2017 edition of Drugs of Abuse, A DEA Resource Guide

State officials are committing more than $1 million to fight prescription opioid abuse in Nevada...The Assembly's Interim Finance Committee...unanimously approved the five-point plan to combat prescription drug abuse...Attorney General Adam Laxalt's office put forward the initiative...My office’s ‘Prescription for Addiction’ opioid initiative creates an opportunity to face the epidemic that touches our families, friends and loved ones, and to promote prevention in Nevada...this initiative...includes the purchase of drug incinerators, the distribution of Naloxone to first responders, funding allocated toward prevention and education efforts, and the creation of an investigative position to assist with federal efforts to curb opioid abuse...The plan is being paid with a $5.3 million settlement with Volkswagen to settle allegations that the carmaker cheated on emissions tests.

PTNN, This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Join Together Northern Nevada is holding a semiannual “Prescription Drug Round Up” day on October 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The goal of the round up is to collect unused, unwanted and expired prescription - or non-prescription - medications.

Locations:

• Raleys - 18144 Wedge Parkway, Reno
• CVS – 55 Damonte Ranch Parkway, Reno
• SaveMart – 105—N. McCarran Blvd., Reno
• Smith’s – 175 Lemmon Drive, Reno
• Scolari’s – 4788 Caughlin Parkway, Reno
• UNR Student Health Center, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno
• CVS - 680 N. McCarran Blvd, Sparks
• CVS – 5151 Sparks Blvd., Sparks

You may also drop off your pet medications and liquid form of medications.

Australia provides half of the world’s legal supply of raw opiate, but demand and prices are tumbling...With the U.S. imposing stricter rules on the use of painkillers, demand for the raw material has tumbled. Poppy growers in Tasmania have responded by scaling back or giving up on the crop altogether. The state is the source of about half of global supply, thanks to a 1971 agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia that granted it a decades-long monopoly on poppy cultivation...Tasmanian farmers...are reeling from the impact of government and corporate efforts to stem the abuse of prescription painkillers and their illegal knockoffs. The volume of opioid-based medicines prescribed in the U.S. has dropped 28 percent since 2012 following moves by the Drug Enforcement Agency to tighten access...The prescription branded-opioid market is at its lowest point in almost a decade...Tasmania is facing more competition: Three states on the Australian mainland have eased restrictions on poppy growing in recent years...As they wait for a rebound in demand, Tasmania’s poppy farmers need to focus on becoming more efficient...Some growers have managed to boost their yields to an average of about 40 kilograms of active raw material per hectare, up from 25 kilograms five years ago...It is a really, really tough marketplace out there, and it doesn’t look like it’s improving...The only thing at the present time to make it viable is increasing productivity...

A federal prosecutor told jurors...that a Massachusetts pharmacist gambled with patients’ lives by making drugs in unsafe ways that led to a deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, but a defense lawyer said he was no murderer...Glenn Chin, a former supervisory pharmacist at New England Compounding Center, made drugs in filthy conditions, producing mold-tainted steroids in the process...Those steroids were shipped out to healthcare facilities nationally and then injected into patients, leading to an outbreak that sickened 778 people, including 76 people who died…“Make no mistake, Glenn Chin is not sitting in this court room because he was negligent or careless,”... “He is here because of his deliberate choices.”...Chin directed “massive corner cutting” in...NECC’s so-called clean rooms where the drugs were made, prioritizing production over cleaning and failing to properly test or sterilize drugs.

A federal judge...denied a request by pharmaceutical companies to immediately block a Nevada law requiring them to detail diabetes drug prices and disclose manufacturing costs and research investments come July...The reason, he said: July is more than nine months away...“I don’t see immediate and irreparable harm here,” U.S. District Judge James Mahan said after hearing arguments for and against the request in Las Vegas. Mahan said he might reconsider if the request were made in March or April, but he facetiously added, “My crystal ball is broken.”...At Tuesday’s hearing, Robert Weiner, who represented the pharmaceutical groups, argued that acts as a penalty for companies wanting to raise prices after Nov. 1 and before the July disclosure date...“This is a competitive disadvantage, and it chills us now,” Weiner said...Arguing against the injunction, Las Vegas Chief Deputy Attorney General Linda Anderson said the law is intended to protect diabetes patients in Nevada.

Gilead Sciences Inc….secured U.S. approval for its newly acquired CAR-T therapy, giving adult patients with a certain type of lymphoma and few other options a promising new treatment that offers the hope of remission for some...The regulatory OK...puts Gilead at the forefront of cancer cell therapy development and validates the biotech's decision to buy the drug's original developer, Kite Pharma Inc...Gilead will market the therapy under the brand name Yescarta (axicabatagene ciloleucel) at an annual cost of $373,000 — a price that underscores the affordability challenges presented by the personalized nature of CAR-T treatment…Throughout the development of Yescarta, Kite stayed neck and neck with the larger and well-resourced Novartis AG. While Novartis can claim the landmark of winning the first ever approval of a CAR-T therapy, Gilead's near $12 billion takeover of Kite is a worthy second prize.

Kelly Davio, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Pharma companies have faced a gamut of allegations over the years, but a new lawsuit ups the ante by alleging several drugmakers paid bribes in Iraq that helped fuel terrorism...the lawsuit alleged that top pharma companies Pfizer, Roche, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca paid bribes to secure healthcare contracts in Iraq. Those payments ultimately supported terrorism that hurt or killed U.S. service members...More than 100 veterans or their family members are suing the drugmakers under the Anti-Terrorism Act...The lawsuit said the "terrorist-finance mechanism was straightforward: the terrorists openly controlled the Iraqi ministry in charge of importing medical goods, and defendants—all of which are large Western medical-supply companies—obtained lucrative contracts from that ministry by making corrupt payments to the terrorists who ran it."