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News about COVID-19 runs rampant on the internet and changes by the hour, or even by the minute. It’s difficult to stay on top of what’s happening, much less what’s important, in the life sciences industry without scrubbing the entire internet. That's what W2O Group and the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA) are looking to change with a new data-driven platform...Their jointly launched dashboard, called COR, uses W2O’s machine and artificial intelligence data engine to scrape its life science industry data set for news and posts mentioning COVID-19. It then serves up the top-ranked information across different sectors—life sciences, healthcare providers, media, California, and the scientific community—to reveal what’s trending in each one from that segment’s leading voices and sources in almost real time...READ MORE

CVS Caremark is setting limits on the quantities of certain medications being used off label to treat coronavirus disease symptoms...The pharmacy benefit manager will set new “appropriate” limits on the quantity of hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) and azithromycin (Zithromax Z-Pak), along with 1 protease inhibitor and albuterol inhalers...However, CVS Caremark members who already take the treatments—which are approved for the treatment of lupus, bacterial infections, HIV, rheumatoid arthritis, and asthma—can bypass the new quantity limits...CVS Caremark is “working with clients to implement new measures to balance the burgeoning interest in off-label use of certain medicines to treat COVID-19 pneumonia with the ongoing needs of members who use these drugs for chronic conditions,”READ MORE

Gov. Steve Sisolak has signed an emergency measure to safeguard the threatened supply of two drugs being hoarded for possible use in the treatment of COVID-19...The governor signed the emergency regulation Tuesday on the recommendation of the state Board of Pharmacy...The drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, are used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and are being studied by the Food and Drug Administration for possible use in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19...The governor’s order prohibits the prescribing and dispensing chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for a COVID-19 diagnosis, requires the appropriate prescription coding for their “legitimate medical purposes” and limits prescriptions to a 30-day supply...The order doesn’t limit use of the drugs in hospitals, only in outpatient settings where hoarding is evident, the governor’s office stressed. Doctors may continue to prescribe them to hospitalized COVID-19 patients at their discretion...READ MORE

A Biogen employee who allegedly concealed her coronavirus symptoms on a flight back to China may face criminal charges. But first, the biotech has decided it wants nothing to do with the rogue staffer...“She is no longer an employee of Biogen,” a company spokesperson told FiercePharma...According to Biogen, the former employee, a woman surnamed Li, ignored health experts’ guidance and “made the personal decision to travel to China without informing the company.”...Li told local authorities she attended the ill-fated Biogen management meeting at the Marriott Long Wharf hotel in Boston on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27, which as of Thursday has been linked to 97 COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts and multiple cases in other states. But the people at Biogen said Li did not attend the meeting because it wasn't an event for her...READ MORE

The specter of global drug shortages looms large amid the coronavirus pandemic. But so far, the supply chain is holding steady and prices are going up—in the generic drug business, at least. One analyst, in fact, figures COVID-19 could turn out to be a profitable time for the generics industry...After some "initial shocks" from COVID-19, the global generic drug supply chain is likely to rebound and deliver strong growth numbers despite some potential "spot shortages,"...A potent mixture of patient and channel stockpiling and manufacturer "allocation" measures will drive generics pricing upward in the short term...READ MORE

Matthew Gavidia, welcome to This Week in Managed Care

Overwhelmed by demand for an experimental treatment for coronavirus, the drug maker Gilead abruptly shut down its emergency access program, leaving doctors and families scrambling for answers...The company said it was setting up a broader access program that could try to help more people, but some said the transition is delaying remedies for very ill patients who have few options...Gilead said emergency requests had “flooded an emergency treatment access system that was set up for very limited access to investigational medicines and never intended for use in response to a pandemic.”...Gilead said it was switching to a broader program because it could not handle individual requests. “Due to overwhelming demand over the last several days, during this transition period we are unable to accept new individual compassionate use requests,” the company said on Sunday, with the exception of pregnant women and children under 18. “This approach will both accelerate access to remdesivir for severely ill patients and enable the collection of data from all participating patients,” the company said...READ MORE

The coronavirus has upended the globe...Many companies have sent their employees home...Much attention, and rightly so, is focused on the drugs the biopharma industry is developing to treat COVID-19. But those efforts could disguise a cost to public health, too, in the form of stalled progress on experimental medicines for other diseases...Since the start of March, at least nine companies have reported some sort of disruption to a clinical trial as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Such news is becoming more common, as medical centers across the world focus their precious resources on treating people infected with the coronavirus...READ MORE

In a joint statement, the American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association, and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists have communicated concerns regarding the inappropriate ordering, prescribing, or dispensing of treatments for COVID-19...The AMA, APhA, and ASHP collectively applaud the selflessness of health care professionals during the COVID-19 crisis, and alternatively caution against providers “prophylactically prescribing medications currently identified as potential treatments for COVID-19 for themselves, their families, or their colleagues,” noting that “some pharmacies and hospitals have been purchasing excessive amounts of these medications in anticipation of potentially using them for COVID-19 prevention and treatment.”...“In a time of national pandemic, now is not the time for states to issue conflicting guidance, however well-intentioned, that could lead to unintended consequences,”...READ MORE

AbbVie has released an update on its pending acquisition of Allergan, announcing that the companies have entered into a consent decree agreement with staff of the US Federal Trade Commission regarding the deal...AbbVie claimed that the primary aim of the merger is to achieve a "diversified product portfolio [that] meets our strategic goal to reduce reliance on Humira", as Humira – AbbVie’s blockbuster and also the world’s best-selling drug – gradually loses its patenting around the world, starting in Europe last year...READ MORE