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As retail pharmacy celebrates America's military veterans...those veterans are celebrating retail pharmacy, at least those brick-and-mortar pharmacies not located within a VA medical center, a recent J.D. Power survey found...One reason? The ordering process. Veterans were more satisfied with retail brick-and-mortar pharmacies as compared to medical center pharmacies...veterans were more likely to understand explanations from retail pharmacists (93%) as compared to pharmacists from VA medical centers (80%), even though the average length of a conversation is longer at the VA (4.8 minutes with VA pharmacists vs. 3.8 minutes with retail pharmacists).

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval told the state dental board to address problems with its patient-complaint-resolution process at a heated meeting...in which dental professionals accused the regulators of corruption, bullying and extortion...“There’s something not right here and it needs to be fixed,” the Republican governor said after hearing complaints and tearful accounts about the alleged problems...The current process...left dentists and other practitioners believing they either had to accept a settlement agreement or risk steeper punishment if found at fault during a final board hearing...Either pay me now or we’ll look into it deeper and you’ll pay me more...

A prominent organization of defense lawyers in Las Vegas this week formed a committee to explore ways of challenging local law enforcement’s methods for gaining drug convictions...The committee, set up by the Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice, will look at the use of what are known as chemical field tests, inexpensive kits used by police and prosecutors to make drug arrests and gain guilty pleas. Officers typically drop suspicious materials into a chemical pouch and look for telltale shifts in color ostensibly meant to indicate the possible presence of illegal drugs. The tests are often the only evidence used to win convictions...The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department crime lab had submitted a formal report detailing the shortcomings of the tests to federal authorities in 2014, and yet to this day the lab still endorses the use of the tests in criminal prosecutions...

Drugmakers currently use the European Medicines Agency as a one-stop-shop to get drugs licensed across Europe, but Britain is likely to drop out of that system if it severs EU ties and leaves the single market in a scenario dubbed "hard Brexit"...An approach to leaving the EU which saw ideological considerations placed above securing the right relationship for the economy and for UK patients would see the UK life sciences sector relegated to a second-tier player...Being cut off from the European system could put British patients at the back of the queue for new medicines because applications for new licenses from Europe...warning comes amid growing concern that Britain's successful pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector could be hit hard...In addition to worries about trade barriers and drug regulation once Britain leaves the EU, industry executives are concerned about their ability to recruit foreign staff and loss of EU science funding...

It’s back to the drawing board for the FDA...After years of slow reaction to pharma marketing online, the agency announced this week a new research initiative to better understand how consumers process short-form posts and ads...the FDA is trying to determine whether links in tweets and Google ads can independently convey all the necessary information about product risk...Under current guidelines, drug companies are required to balance the information they provide in character-space-limited posts. That means for a typical 140-character tweet, at least 70 characters must be dedicated to explaining risks and side effects...Regulatory change could be good news for pharma marketers, who have for a long time sought clarity on what they can and cannot do...

In a move that illustrates the stepped-up pace of Zika vaccine development, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is moving into human testing for its candidate, which uses an inactivated virus to spur immunity to the disease...It's the third Zika-fighting shot to step into the clinic...after Inovio Pharmaceuticals...and the NIH…Walter Reed plans to enroll 75 adults in a Phase I trial of that Zika purified inactivated virus (ZPIV) vaccine...To bolster its Zika effort, the institute has brought in other experts: It partnered with flavivirus vets at Sanofi Pasteur and Brazil’s Fiocruz. The collaborative effort has additional governmental assistance from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is contributing funding.

Justin Gallagher, associate publisher of The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care, From the Managed Markets News Network.

Zipline, a San Francisco Bay-area company that’s using drones to deliver medical supplies such as blood, (and soon, medication and vaccines) to rural areas and in developing countries, has closed a $25 million Series B round...The funding comes at a time when Zipline is expanding its business in Rwanda and preparing to launch in the U.S...The drone business is planning to launch its drone delivery service in the U.S. next year, as part of a partnership with the White House and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration...Zipline has been ramping up its medical drone business in Rwanda. The company signed a one-year partnership with Rwanda’s government to deliver blood for transfusions to the western half of the country and plans to start deliveries in the eastern half of Rwanda by the end of the year.

Something astonishing has happened in the past year to outpatient treatment at the Veterans Affairs hospital here...Vets regularly get next-day and even same-day appointments for primary care now, no longer waiting a month or more to see a doctor as many once did...The reason is they don’t all see doctors. Clinical pharmacists — whose special training permits them to prescribe drugs, order lab tests, make referrals to specialists and do physical examinations — are handling more patients’ chronic care needs. That frees physicians to concentrate on new patients and others with complex needs...A quarter of primary care appointments at the Madison hospital are now handled by clinical pharmacists…It’s having a significant impact on reducing wait times and our office is trying to expand more of them nationally to increase access...VA hospital officials in both Madison and El Paso said they faced challenges initially in persuading doctors to delegate some duties to qualified pharmacists...Some physicians feel like it’s a turf war and don’t want to refer their patients because they feel the clinical pharmacist is trying to practice medicine...

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