Category:

The report on...a powerful treatment for the new coronavirus brought skepticism along with optimism among U.S. doctors, who said the recent withdrawal of an influential COVID-19 study left them wanting to see more data...Global pressure to find a cure or vaccine has accelerated the process of reporting coronavirus study results, feeding confusion over whether therapies have been proven effective. One influential COVID study was withdrawn this month by respected British medical journal The Lancet over data concerns...Researchers in Britain said dexamethasone, used to fight inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates of the most severely ill COVID-19 patients by around a third, and they would work to publish full details as soon as possible...But hours later South Korea’s top health official cautioned about the use of the drug for COVID-19 patients due to potential side effects...READ MORE

The novel COVID-19 virus has now infiltrated our communities on a global scale, forcing pharmacies to quickly adapt in order to sustain operations in the new normal...pharmacies everywhere are experiencing a dramatic influx in demand, but dwindling supply of resources and staffing...in a world increasingly influenced by technology, there is ample opportunity to leverage automation within pharmacies that can not only improve operations and maximize efficiency, but support patient wellness while growing their business and profits...

Adherence Pouch Packaging
- unit-of-use packaging alone saved more than 46.5 minutes per 100 prescriptions filled compared to count-and-pour dispensing.

Medication Synchronization and Adherence
- pharmacies can adopt medication synchronization, meaning all of a patient’s prescriptions are synchronized to be refilled on the exact same day of the month, eliminating the need for separate call-ins and pickups...READ MORE

Digital health technology is transforming every aspect of pharmacy practice, whether it deploys robotics to fill prescriptions, uses analytics to track medication data, or offers access to digital therapy. Pharmacists in both the hospital and retail settings are using recently developed technology to prevent adverse drug effects, monitor the use of antibiotics, modify unhealthy behavior, and promote medication adherence...Not only can technology make a pharmacist’s day more efficient by automating repetitive tasks, but new digital health products are providing more insight into data and the opportunity for real-time patient interaction...READ MORE

Monitoring Medication
Digiceuticals and Behavior Modification
Preventing Adverse Effects
Antibiotic Stewardship in Real Time

The biopharma industry has struggled to recruit patients into clinical trials that adequately reflect the diverse patient populations they hope to reach with new products. Failure to improve minority subgroup participation now will cost trial sponsors later...New Research from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development reveals the extent to which minority groups are absent from clinical trials supporting new drug and biologic approvals...Additional tools are emerging to help sponsors effectively recruit and enroll underrepresented patient populations in clinical trials...READ MORE

With little still known about the novel coronavirus and its treatments, some shady websites are grabbing coronavirus-related URLs to push unproven products to consumers...The Food and Drug Administration has issued more than 20 warning letters since mid-May to websites selling unproven COVID-19 treatments. These online retailers are selling products like hydroxychloroquine, essential oils and alternative sanitizers that claim to treat COVID-19 or kill the virus on surfaces...The FDA took action against these websites, requiring that they remove claims that certain products will treat COVID-19 and stop selling drugs like chloroquine for unapproved uses...READ MORE

CVS Health will try delivering prescriptions with self-driving vehicles in a test that begins next month...The drugstore chain said...that it will partner with the Silicon Valley robotics company Nuro to deliver medicines and other products to customers near a Houston-area store...A CVS spokesman said the prescriptions will routinely be delivered within an hour of being ordered...Nuro has previously started partnerships to test the delivery of pizzas for Domino’s or groceries for Kroger, also in the Houston area. This is the company’s first venture into health care...READ MORE

In its effort to combat fraudulent medical products that claim to prevent or treat COVID-19, FDA has issued 42 warning letters, as of May 7, 2020, to companies promoting unproven products claiming to prevent, treat, diagnose, or even cure COVID-19...The agency’s Operation Quack Hack has discovered hundreds of fraudulent drugs, testing kits, and personal protective equipment sold online. FDA has sent numerous abuse complaints to domain name registrars and Internet marketplaces, who the agency says have voluntarily removed the identified postings. “We will continue to monitor the online ecosystem for fraudulent products peddled by bad actors seeking to profit from this global pandemic. We encourage anyone aware of suspected fraudulent medical products for COVID-19 to report them to the FDA,” the agency said in a press release...READ MORE

The U.S. biopharmaceutical industry depends on reliable intellectual property protections to promote the development of new treatments and cures for patients. Strong IP protections are especially important as innovators work around the clock making substantial investments at risk to develop solutions to help prevent infection and treat those with COVID-19...many of the existing medicines and investigational medicines in clinical trials for COVID-19 exist today because of IP and other incentives that drove their initial research...Strong and reliable IP protections support America’s robust innovation ecosystem by promoting innovation and affordability for patients who rely on new treatments and cures...READ MORE

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy released the May 2020 Rogue Rx Activity Report, Rogue Online Pharmacies in the Time of Pandemic: Capitalizing on Misinformation and Fear. The report highlights how illegal online pharmacies use COVID-19 to expand operations and prey on consumer fears...NABP has identified dozens of rogue online pharmacies claiming to sell prescription drugs marketed for COVID-19 treatment. Drugs such as chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, and ritonavir are being sold online after they gained media attention; however, these are unproven treatments for COVID-19 and are dangerous when taken without proper medical supervision...READ MORE

Attempting to capitalize on the pandemic, illegal online pharmacies are:

-adding coronavirus-related images to preexisting websites,
-purchasing domain names that include COVID-19 words and phrases,
-registering domain names with fraudulent “safe haven” registrars, and
-creating new website facades linking to non-coronavirus-related stores.

Gilead was recently hit with an Iranian "password spraying" attack that used fake email login pages in an attempt to access passwords of high-ranking executives...In April, an Iranian hacker group known as "Charming Kitten" sent an email, purportedly from a journalist, to a Gilead legal and corporate affairs executive as part of a scheme to compromise the drugmaker's company email accounts...Earlier this week, the U.K. and U.S. governments warned that "malicious cyber campaigns" were targeting healthcare policymakers and researchers to gain access to corporate emails using "password spraying," or using common passwords to access a number of accounts...READ MORE