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Novartis is using an oft-overlooked social network in the pharma world--Pinterest--for one of its campaigns… using the image-oriented site to set up malaria-fighting stories in graphic-novel form…The…Swiss drugmaker designed three boards on Pinterest, including

• "Mosquito Gauntlet"…odyssey of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, through a battery of ruthless technology,..chapter headings such as "The Smack-Down" and "The Puddle of Doom"…tells the story of recent efforts to combat malaria and also mentions Novartis' malaria pipeline at the end.
• "Mosquito Mayhem"…asking viewers to use the company's pins to "build your own mosquito misadventure,"..
• "M-Force Trading Cards"…illustrated trading cards with a "task force" of malaria-fighting superheroes….For example, "Agent Sparrow"

Restore Health…it has entered into an agreement to acquire the compounding pharmacy assets of Diplomat Pharmacy… services include the preparation of personalized medications for patients and compounding pharmacists who work with prescribers to customize a medication to meet a patient's specific health needs.

Ashley Talamo, Publisher: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program highlights the latest in pharmacy news, product news, and more. (video)

..latest wonder drug to make headlines sounds like a dream for ambitious workers: Modafinil, a narcolepsy pill, has been shown to make you a sharper thinker, a better decision maker, and generally more alert – whether or not you have a sleep disorder, researchers found few safety concerns or side effects from the drug…main problem…no long-term studies of safety and efficacy in healthy people,..Without safety studies,. .."we do not know that modafinil is safe in the long-term for people to use."

A hard drumbeat of FDA complaints against more than two dozen companies in India for quality violations has affected 39 drugmaking facilities, creating an avalanche of remedial work that could take years and is steadily driving up medicine costs in the United States…FT (Financial Times) said it counted 6 Indian drugmakers that had manufacturing sites hauled up by the FDA…encompassing 27 companies…spate of massive product recalls.

Vladimir Putin says support from Russian business community is needed to help achieve the domestic drug manufacturing goals set out in his Pharma 2020 policy…. Government investment…would help increase local drug manufacture and reduce reliance on imports…private investment from the country's drugmakers is now needed…Putin stressed a commitment to local manufacture would not mean a ban on foreign imports.

George Paz’s strategy to rein in drug companies’ price increases is starting to show results. A new analysis shows that attempts by drugmakers to raise prices on their prescription medications are being wiped out in negotiations with managers of drug insurance benefits, led…Express Scripts Holding Co.,.. While list prices for drugs continue to rise rapidly,…U.S. brand-name drug prices rose just 0.7 percent in the second quarter from the previous year…. That’s because companies like Express Scripts and CVS have embarked on strategies to exclude big-selling treatments from lists of covered drugs unless their makers offer better prices...

Egalet Corporation…launched…An immediate-release oral formulation, Oxaydo (oxycodone HCI) is intended to manage acute and chronic moderate to severe pain where the use of an opioid analgesic is appropriate,..it is one of the first immediate-release oxycodone tablets designed to discourage abuse by snorting…designed to discourage abuse with no food effect…

Americans today rightly demand more transparency...It is the foundation upon which to assess accountability, performance and trust… the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition — a coalition dedicated to representing the exclusive legislative and regulatory interests of independent Long Term Care pharmacies and the vulnerable patients they serve — hopes to work with Congress on reforms that both increase transparency in drug pricing practices and ensure protection against Medicare Part D pricing policies that hinder LTC pharmacies’ ability to delivery quality pharmaceutical care and services...

Actelion Ltd said…it has initiated preliminary discussions with …biotech company ZS Pharma Inc…reported earlier in the day that Actelion had offered to buy ZS Pharma last month in a deal valued at $2.5 billion…both issued statements confirming that the two companies had held preliminary discussions, but did not specifically mention if the talks were related to a buyout…. ZS Pharma's shares had spiked nearly 46 percent…a record high of $84.85…closed up 28.4 percent, valuing the company at $1.9 billion