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Although control measures are applied, falsified medicines are present in the supply chain in Niger, with solutions requiring cross-country collaboration, says the country’s Ministry of Health...The spotlight was put on the topic of falsified medicines earlier this month with the signing of the Lomé Initiative​, a political declaration under which the governments of seven African countries agreed to act to fight the issue, and improve access to quality medicines for African populations...the smuggling of fake drugs occurring at the country’s borders is the main weak point in the supply chain...harmonization of the legislation...can and needs to be achieved with the establishment of the African Medicines Agency, which would be the African equivalent of the European Medicines Agency, in charge of the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products...READ MORE

A pharmacy group is taking a wait-and-see approach after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced several drug reforms–including a state generic prescription drug label...If the proposed reforms are approved, California would be the first state to have its own generic drug label...“A major cause of skyrocketing prescription drug prices is bargaining asymmetry, by which the pharmaceutical industry, often wielding monopoly power, is left unchecked, in the absence of a strong counterparty at the bargaining table…” Newsom said in the executive order...Although the California Pharmacists Association applauded the Governor’s “commitment to the healthcare of all Californians and ensuring all patients can continue to have access to affordable, life-saving medications," the organization said in a press release...CPhA declined to say whether it supports a state prescription drug label...READ MORE

Gianna Melillo, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Government officials in Wuhan, China are suspending all public transportation, including buses, trains, airplanes and ferries, to better combat the coronavirus outbreak...citing Chinese state media...Officials are also asking citizens not to leave the city unless there are special circumstances. Additionally, people in public places will be required to wear masks to prevent exposure to the illness, local officials said...The actions came after public health officials said earlier in the day that deaths from China’s new virus, which is believed to have started in Wuhan, rose to 17 with more than 540 cases confirmed...READ MORE

...the FDA wants to know whether consumers care one way or the other about influencers' paid endorsements….The agency proposed two studies this week to look at four different kinds of influencers in advertising—celebrities, physicians, patients and online influencers. In the first study, participants will view print ads featuring a physician, a celebrity and a patient with either a full disclosure that the person was paid to appear or no disclosure at all...The second study will tap 698 followers of an Instagram influencer with more than half a million and ask them to view posts for a fictitious endometriosis product labeled directly as paid ads; labeled indirectly, such as with the common hashtag #sp for sponsored; or not labeled at all...The intent of both is to look at the “role of the endorsement and payment status on participants' recall, benefit and risk perceptions, and behavioral intentions,” according to the filing...READ MORE

With federal prosecutors laying waste to Insys' executive team, one big domino was still left to fall: Founder and former CEO John Kapoor, who had a leading role in the drugmaker's opioid kickback scheme. Now, Kapoor will face a stiff prison sentence that sets the bar for executives in the opioid industry...A federal judge in Boston sentenced Kapoor...to five and a half years in prison for his role in a doctor kickback scheme to boost subscriptions of Subsys...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.

Purdue has been identified as "Pharma Co. X," an unnamed opioid maker at the center of a federal kickback probe that netted a $145 million criminal and civil settlement...from Practice Fusion, a subsidiary of Allscripts Healthcare...According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont, Practice Fusion admitted that it had solicited and received kickbacks from a major opioid company––allegedly Purdue, which shelled out roughly $1 million in payments––in exchange for using its electronic health record software to influence physician prescribing of opioid pain medications..."During the height of the opioid crisis, (Practice Fusion) took a million-dollar kickback to allow an opioid company to inject itself in the sacred doctor-patient relationship so that it could peddle even more of its highly addictive and dangerous opioids,” Christina Nolan, U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont, said in a statement...READ MORE

Safety net providers are pushing back on the growing use of “2-tiered” policies among payers and pharmacy benefit managers under the 340B Drug Pricing Program that provide lower reimbursement rates for 340B-covered entities compared with non-340B entities...The practice has been challenged in court, finding its way to state legislatures through safety net providers who argue the practice is impacting their ability to serve more patients and offer comprehensive services…HHS has declined to intervene on the issue of 2-tier pricing under the 340B program, with both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Health Resources and Services Administration suggesting that they do not have authority to regulate this practice...READ MORE

The National Community Pharmacists Association is highlighting pharmacists' expanding role in health care to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services...NCPA is urging CMS to enhance coverage of pharmacist-provided care services and reevaluate strict supervision requirements, as well as coverage policies for incident-to services...In response to President Trump’s Executive Order #13890 on Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nation’s Seniors...In addition to emphasizing that pharmacists improve patient care and outcomes when collaborating with health care professionals, NCPA argues in its comments that restrictive regulations currently hinder pharmacists’ ability to continue providing this care at the federal level, especially when state laws are already expanding to allow health care practitioners to contribute fully to patient care...READ MORE