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Roche Chief Executive Severin Schwan criticized Britain's health system…after two of the company's cancer drugs were dropped from use, calling it a "stupid" way to control costs that could jeopardize research in the country… Schwan said there would be also knock-on effects for research in Britain, since if drugs like Avastin were not available as standard then Roche would not be able to do certain clinical trials in the country…Eventually, this will hurt us on the research side in the UK…

Pfizer's stop-smoking drug Chantix (varenicline) does not raise risks of heart attack or depression, contrary to previous reports, and should be recommended to more smokers wanting to quit, scientists said…researchers found that patients who took Chantix,..marketed as Champix in Europe, were no more likely to suffer a heart attack than those using nicotine replacement therapy or another quit-smoking drug…also not at higher risk of depression or self-harm...

Pharmacy Board of Australia (the Board) has released revised guidelines that provide guidance to the profession on a range of issues.

Pharmacists are urged to read the revised guidelines published today:

• Guidelines for dispensing of medicines
• Guidelines on practice-specific issues,
• Guideline 1 Reference texts for pharmacists
• Guidelines on dose administration aids and staged supply of dispensed medicines, and
• Guidelines for proprietor pharmacists.

Biologic therapy targets genetic defects found in various cancers… FDA granted Orphan Drug Designation to MTG-201 (MTG Biotherapeutics Inc.) for the treatment malignant mesothelioma…drug targets the Dickkopf-3 genetic defect found in various cancers…There is a…need for new treatment options for…mesothelioma…one of the most aggressive and poorly treated cancers. MTG-201 represents a…novel approach to treating this cancer by selectively inducing apoptosis and inducing an immunologic response against the cancer..

Food and Drug Administration…have expressed concerns over likely errors in administering Purdue Pharma's fast-acting oxycodone…(Avridi) that could result in inadequate relief…The drug is designed to be taken every 4-6 hours on an empty stomach…absorption…can be substantially delayed in the presence of food,.. "food effect" may reduce the effectiveness and safety of the drug,.. Inadequate pain control caused by presence of food could lead to overdosing…

..when it comes to HIPAA compliance…the day of reckoning is coming for more covered entities..and now for business associates…OCR (Office for Civil Rights) is inching closer to conducting more HIPAA audits..including audits of business associates…next round of HIPAA audits brewing, and covered entities started receiving questionnaires…seeking...to identify business associates…The relentless move of health data to the cloud, and the exponential growth of an ecosystem of business associates providing a vast array of services to covered entities mean that the potential exposure of protected health information to breaches.. is enormous.

The price of…health plans sold through Maryland’s insurance exchange will jump, on average, by about one quarter next year, fueling questions about whether coverage under the Affordable Care Act will remain affordable in the state…26 percent average increase in monthly premiums are for CareFirst plans, which cover three-fourths of the state residents who have bought insurance under the federal health-care law. The price jump,…is among rate changes that the state’s insurance regulators have approved for plans sold to individual families and small businesses.

..Indian TB drugmaker has been hit with a WHO (World health Organization) Notice of Concern but an independent audit carried out by its customer Svizera Europe disputes the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) violations raised…The facility is run by Svizera Labs Private Limited…and manufactures a number of anti-tuberculosis drugs… firm failed to provide adequate controls to stop the contamination of products,..observing uneven floor, crumbling walls, and black mould inside a drain which also held stagnant water… Quality manager at…Svizera Europe is disputing the WHO’s findings.

Medical Journal of Australia today confirms the potential for community pharmacies to make a significant contribution to reducing the cost of unnecessary hospitalisations…study conducted by researchers at the University of South Australia and the BUPA Health Foundation shows that as many as one in four older hospital patients could have avoided admission had their medication and health risks been better managed…. a quarter of hospital admissions were preceded by ‘sub-optimal care’, with up to $300 million being spent per year to treat elderly patients who were not on the correct drug regime.

physicians, pharmacists and researchers have been frustrated for decades at patients’ inability to…remain on their medication regimens…a round of experiments funded by the Affordable Care Act…offer hope of progress against one of medicine’s most intractable problems….

1. One project applies behavioral economics to the problem. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania gave 1,000 people "electronic pill bottles" when they left the hospital after heart attacks. If they forgot to take their medicine, the cap would light up and beep… If they took their medications,…they became eligible to win small lotteries that offer…prizes.
2. In Hawaii, another project, the $14.3 million "Pharm2Pharm" experiment, seeks to connect doctors and pharmacists who dispense medication to patients leaving hospitals with community pharmacists…Community pharmacists often complain that they have no idea which medications their patients are taking, especially when they leave hospitals with new ones and can’t guard against dangerous interactions.
3. In Wisconsin, more than 25 percent of the state’s pharmacists took a 12-hour training course, then sought out 100,000 people who appeared to be failing to refill their prescriptions…based on data provided by insurers under a $4.1 million project run by the state’s Pharmacy Society. Most were poor or elderly…Cost is a factor, convenience is a factor,..Lack of recognition of importance or need, health literacy and understanding" all contribute to non-adherence,…