Category:

All pharmacy staff—along with everyone entering the pharmacy—should wear face masks, according to new guidance from the CDC...The CDC’s “Guidance for Pharmacists” also says that pharmacies should postpone and reschedule some routine preventive services, such as adult immunizations, since they require face-to-face interaction...This guidance applies to all pharmacy staff to minimize their risk of exposure to the virus and reduce the risk for customers during the COVID-19 pandemic...According to the guidance, pharmacies should:

Implement universal use of face coverings.
Advise staff who are sick to stay home.
Encourage all prescribers to submit prescription orders via telephone or electronically.
Limit direct contact with customers.
Reduce risk during COVID-19 testing.
Maintain social distancing
Ensure that the waiting area is cleaned regularly.
Close self-serve blood pressure units.

READ MORE

Dogged by whistleblower kickback claims over its multiple sclerosis med Gilenya for years, Novartis has run off a recent string of court wins to escape the allegations...But in one New Jersey suit, Novartis will now be forced to confront a former employee's claims that he was fired without cause for bringing a kickback scheme to light...Novartis must face claims it retaliated against one of its employees for raising concerns the drugmaker engaged in a pharmacy benefit manager kickback scheme...former Novartis employee Joseph Perri alleged he was terminated after notifying management about "disparities" between the drugmaker's commercial and Medicare Part D rebates paid to a PBM for Gilenya...READ MORE

Nearly 90% of community pharmacies will apply for small business federal aid under the CARES Act to help them get through the coronavirus storm, according to a new survey...by the National Community Pharmacists Association...“Pharmacies are ‘essential businesses’ staying open during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep serving their communities, but many are on the brink at the very time they are needed most,” said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey. “In the 18 months before this crisis, the number of pharmacies had shrunk by over 2,000, mostly due to low reimbursement from pharmacy benefit managers...As the pandemic strains neighborhood pharmacies, nearly half of pharmacy owners rank the overall financial health of their business as somewhat poor or very poor, according to the survey...READ MORE

...British Columbia was already battling an opioid epidemic when the new coronavirus hit, compounding the threat to drug users, many of whom are homeless and particularly vulnerable during the pandemic...In March, the Canadian government urged provinces to lower barriers to prescription medications - allowing doctors to provide prescriptions for controlled substances by phone and pharmacists to deliver them - to better help citizens to practice physical distancing and self-isolation...B.C. is the first province to apply those guidelines to support people who use street drugs. Healthcare providers are ramping up the supply of prescription drug replacements for those who live with addictions to drugs like heroin, and even dispensing some of them via unique vending machines...READ MORE

Antimalarial hydroxychloroquine has raked in support as a potential wonder drug to treat COVID-19...But small-scale studies have been less than definitive on the drug's chances—and new data haven't cleared matters up much...Department of Veterans Affairs study found that severe COVID-19 patients treated with antimalarial hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with antibiotic azithromycin showed "no evidence" of reduced risk of death or mechanical ventilation over supportive care, according to data...The researchers noted their analysis was not randomized nor controlled and cautioned patience for several ongoing clinical studies to read out before drawing conclusions on hydroxychloroquine's use for COVID-19...READ MORE

Rite Aid continues to expand COVID-19 testing sites with eleven new locations opening Wednesday, April 22, in Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia through its partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services...Now spanning eight states and 24 store locations, all of Rite Aid’s self-testing sites will be open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. seven days a week and expect to be able to conduct approximately 200 tests each day through online appointments. In total, Rite Aid will have the capacity to conduct nearly 5,000 tests daily across all locations...READ MORE

At least four federal class-action lawsuits have been filed against the Chinese government that aim to recover trillions of dollars in damages for what plaintiffs allege is China's failure to contain the coronavirus outbreak and notify the international community about its dangers...In one suit filed in late March, a coalition of California property managers and an accounting firm are seeking to represent all "small businesses" in California that have suffered as a result of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. A suit filed in mid-March by several Florida residents aims to assemble its own class of millions of people...All of the suits accuse the Chinese government of direct complicity in the COVID-19 outbreak and hope to use the machinery of the U.S. legal system to recover enormous amounts in damages. But the chance these actions will lead to any actual recoveries is slim, legal experts said...READ MORE

The FDA is easing its lockdown on compounded drugs to help ease COVID-19 drug shortages...After a series of high-profile failures in the early 2010s, the compounding pharmacy industry took its share of body blows from an FDA looking to impose its will...The FDA will temporarily allow hospitals to source hard-to-find drugs from compounding pharmacies to treat certain patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19...The regulation, meant to last as long as hospitals continue to encounter shortages of key drugs, applies to compounding pharmacies that aren't already sanctioned by the FDA as "outsourcing facilities." To qualify, the copycat drugs must be listed on the FDA's shortages list, and hospitals must have exhausted all other options to access a commercial version of the drug...READ MORE

The Food and Drug Administration in the past month has stepped up seizures of prescription drugs being sent to American customers from pharmacies in Canada and other countries, according to operators of stores in Florida that facilitate the transactions...While seizures at the nation’s international mail facilities have periodically spiked during the past two decades, the latest crackdown is distressing many older customers whose goal is to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic...READ MORE

Institutional living facilities that serve seniors and others at higher risk of the most serious infections, as well as prisons, where it is difficult to adhere to social distancing guidelines, have been hard hit by the easily spread virus...HHS analysts, compliance officers and epidemiologists are attempting to use the data “to identify, control and contain the spread of COVID-19 among our most vulnerable residents living within skilled nursing and assisted living facilities,” according to a news release from the state’s COVID-19 response team...According to initial data state investigators are compiling, poor hand hygiene has emerged as the No. 1 factor in the spread of COVID-19 in skilled-nursing homes and similar communal care facilities in Nevada...READ MORE