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Outcome Health, which streams pharmaceutical ads on televisions and computer tablets it installs in doctors’ offices, agreed to pay $70 million to end a U.S. criminal probe into whether it defrauded clients by selling ad inventory it did not have...Department of Justice said...Outcome entered a three-year non-prosecution agreement where it admitted that former executives and employees overbilled clients, which were mostly pharmaceutical companies, in a scheme that ran from 2012 to 2017...The Justice Department also said Outcome admitted to overstating revenue, enabling it to raise $972.5 million of equity and debt financing, including from affiliates of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Pritzker Group, and obtain a $5 billion valuation by 2017...READ MORE

The Office of Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak announced that they are investigating the State Board of Pharmacy for allegedly failing to do background checks on pharmacy wholesalers...The governor's office says since 2007, the State Board of Pharmacy has been collecting fees, but has not been doing background or fingerprint checks as required by a law passed in 2005...The Governor announced today that he is authorizing the recommendations proposed by the Audit Division:

1. Lifting the temporary moratorium on granting wholesale pharmacy licenses to eligible applicants.

2. Directing the BOP to return unspent fingerprint fees to the appropriate applicants and licensees and transfer any fees that cannot be returned or tied to an individual or entity to the State Treasurer’s Unclaimed Property Account.

3. Requesting that the BOP hold accountable those who failed in their statutory obligations to protect the health and safety of Nevadans...READ MORE

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Just a day before a lawsuit by The Nevada Independent to obtain public records through the state’s drug transparency law was set for a hearing and both sides had filed briefs, District Court...has kicked the hearing date to November 19...the state effectively denied two records requests seeking copies of reports submitted to the state by drug companies and pharmaceutical middlemen under the state’s bipartisan insulin pricing transparency law...the state argued that a federal law, the Defend Trade Secrets Act, preempts the state law and makes that information confidential. Its position came in the face of stiff opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, which pushed hard against the bill during the 2017 session and which has sued once already to keep the state from publishing key details...That suit was eventually dropped, but only after DHHS adopted internal policies allowing drug makers to mark those details as trade secrets. In ending legal action, industry lawyers — calling the bill “facially unconstitutional” — left the door open for another lawsuit...READ MORE

Painful Mistakes...Does Nevada discipline dentists who injure patients? Our investigation found complaints have climbed, while sanctions have plummeted...Many say the dental board needs an overhaul...Nevada’s dental board members have faced allegations of conflicts of interest, illegally required dentists to contribute to nonprofits with ties to board members and failed to investigate complaints against the board’s own president, a Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation found...The allegations, detailed in audits, public records and complaints, so outraged Gov. Steve Sisolak that he directed the Nevada Board of Dental Examiners, whose members he appoints, to undergo training by the Nevada Commission on Ethics...READ MORE (pay wall)

Three major U.S. retailers, including Walmart, are removing all 22-ounce bottles of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder from their stores, following the healthcare conglomerate’s recall last week of some bottles due to possible asbestos contamination...CVS Health Corp said...it would remove the bottles from its online store as well, out of caution and to prevent customer confusion. The pharmacy chain said all other sizes of the talc would remain on its shelves...READ MORE

Laura Joszt, 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.

...officers cannot explain how the medicine outlet in Kowloon became a victim of clearance operation..Store manager harmed by the chemical irritant, which engulfed Ming Yan Dispensary on Sunday...Police have apologised for firing tear gas into a pharmacy and restaurant in Hong Kong during a protest...READ MORE

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether the popular heartburn drug Zantac causes carcinogens to form in the bodies of users, in an effort to fully understand the risks posed by the already recalled drug...The issue of whether ranitidine...causes levels of the probable carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine to rise in users’ bodies has been raised previously by Valisure, an online pharmacy that originally flagged the potential contamination of ranitidine to the FDA...READ MORE

Canada’s Liberal government is more likely to pass a universal prescription drug plan after losing its majority in Monday’s election, setting the stage for what would be the biggest shakeup of the country’s public healthcare system since it was created in the 1960s...Universal drug coverage would shake up the country’s C$39.8 billion ($30.4 billion) prescription drug market, and cut drugmakers’ revenue by some C$4.8 billion a year by 2027. It may draw opposition from drugmakers, and from private insurers, who could also lose revenue, as well as deficit hawks...READ MORE