- Pharmasave to source medical cannabis from CanniMed (drugstorenews.com)
Aurora Cannabis and CanniMed Therapeutics announced...a letter of intent to become a preferred supplier of medical cannabis to Pharmasave, member-governed cooperative of more than 650 independently owned community pharmacies...Pharmasave joins two other national pharmacy chains...These supply agreements allow...strong penetration into...a sizable portion of the medical cannabis market...pharmacists need to be prepared to fulfill their role as medication experts in the area of medical cannabis...This includes how medical cannabis may affect other medications the patient may take, any health conditions they might have and insights on how to identify and address mental health and addiction concerns in patients...
- Swiss drugmaker Novartis faces bribery allegations in China (globaltimes.cn)
A foreign pharmaceutical company has become entangled in bribery allegations in China, in spite of efforts in fighting rampant commercial corruption in the medical sector...An employee at Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis International AG's affiliate in China (Beijing Novartis Pharma Co., Ltd) accused the drugmaker of money laundering via funding fake academic activities…To promote the company's new drugs such as benazepril and DIOVAN tablets, the company held fake academic activities and paid clinical doctors kickbacks…Novartis...agreed to pay $25 million in 2016 to settle charges that it violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when its China-based subsidiaries engaged in pay-to-prescribe schemes to increase sales...Novartis said...that the company has launched an investigation into the claim, and promised to take serious measures against any practices that violate rules and regulations...
- Insurers will study blockchain to fix their provider lists (cnbc.com)
As a patient, finding a doctor in-network on your health plan can make a big difference when it comes to out of pocket costs. For insurers and the doctors they contract with, finding a better way to keep provider lists up to date, could make a big difference when it comes to administrative costs...The administrative costs of updating and tracking down that information are estimated to be more than $2 billion dollars a year for the health-care industry...in 2016 federal health officials found that nearly half of provider listings for Medicare Advantage plans were inaccurate, with incorrect provider addresses and phone numbers...Now, UnitedHealth Group and its Medicare rival Humana are launching a pilot program together to study whether blockchain technology, with its system of decentralized ledgers, can help fix the problem...Regulators at...the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, may start fining Medicare insurers up to $25,000 a day for inaccurate provider lists, so it's a problem the industry is anxious to resolve for their doctors, their patients and their bottom lines...
- Come for your drugs, leave with more shopping: Walmart’s new growth strategy? (reuters.com)
Walmart Inc’s efforts to develop closer ties with health insurer Humana Inc, which came to light...point to a brave new world of retail where superstores become healthcare centers offering basic medical care...They are also aimed at boosting Walmart’s slowing growth in brick-and-mortar store sales as it faces increasing pressure online from Amazon.com Inc. Deepening its existing partnership with Humana, or even acquiring the company outright, could be a step toward turning its 4,700 or so U.S. stores into healthcare centers that aim to attract more shoppers over 65...The end goal here is to get more people in their stores, get them to buy drugs and make an additional purchase while they are in the store...If Walmart can offer “competitive rates” on primary care and other health services...it “can grow traffic and push store visits.”...“It allows them to get ahead of everybody from warehouse club operators like Costco, Target and other retailers who run chain drugstores as well as food and drug combo operators like Kroger and Wegmans.”...
- Crisis triage center in Reno abruptly closes doors less than a month after giving up community behavioral health clinic status (thenevadaindependent.com)
A crisis mental health clinic in Reno abruptly shut its doors...less than a month after giving up its special community behavioral health clinic status...The nonprofit WestCare said in a statement that it has closed its Reno operations — with the exception of WestCare Homefront, which serves veterans — because of financial shortfalls with government funding partners. Just three weeks earlier, the nonprofit voluntarily gave up its participation in the certified community behavioral health clinic demonstration program but said that it would continue to operate its programs in Reno...WestCare said that its ability to provide the multitude of services required of a certified community behavioral health center was “significantly diminished” after the departure of a clinical supervisor and three clinical social worker interns...WestCare...will continue to operate the Community Triage Center and our other programs in Reno...
- ‘Penny-a-pill’ funding fades under pressure from pharmaceutical industry (mprnews.org)
When supporters rolled out what they called "penny-a-pill" legislation last month, they described it as a bipartisan effort to raise needed money to combat the opioid overdose epidemic ...But the legislation faces an uncertain future after strong opposition from pharmaceutical companies and some business interests...The legislation...would charge pharmaceutical companies a fee for every opioid painkiller they sell. That would raise an estimated $20 million in continued funding for abuse prevention efforts, wider access to the overdose medication naloxone and more resources for treatment...the House version of the bill no longer includes the fee on manufacturers. Instead, money for the programs would come out of the state general fund, which would be one-time funding.
- Drug Supply Chain Security: OIG Finds Pharmacies Received Most Tracing Information (raps.org)
A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General found that among a sample of 40 pharmacies, all received at least some of the required drug product tracing information from their supply chain partners, though many said they are not reviewing the information...Under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, dispensers, including independent, chain and hospital pharmacies, are required to receive complete tracing information before accepting ownership of a drug shipped from a manufacturer or wholesaler...“Although dispensers are generally implementing the requirements for drug product tracing, missing information and a lack of awareness of DSCSA requirements raise concerns that a complete tracing record for a drug product may not always be available to support investigations of suspect and illegitimate drug products in the supply chain,” OIG said...OIG recommends (and FDA concurred) that FDA offer educational outreach to dispensers of drugs to ensure they understand their responsibilities in receiving complete tracing information from supply chain partners before accepting ownership of such pharmaceuticals...
- CVS Health eyes kidney patients for next expansion into care (cnbc.com)
CVS Health is now planning to treat kidney failure patients, as the national drugstore chain continues to branch deeper into monitoring and providing care...it will offer home dialysis for patients through its Coram business, and it is working with another unspecified company to develop a new device for that...The companies will start a clinical trial of their device this year...CVS Health will begin its expansion into kidney care with a program that helps identify chronic kidney disease early. It will then connect those patients with nurses for training and nutritional counseling to help delay the need for dialysis...CVS Health Corp. has been broadening its reach beyond drugstores for years. It also runs a pharmacy benefit management business and is spending $69 billion to buy the insurer Aetna. It also has been expanding care offered through its more than 9,800 locations (1,100 clinics).
- Study Estimates Nonoptimized Medications Cost the U.S. $528.4 Billion Annually (ptcommunity.com)
Researchers propose that pharmacists can help improve medication-related care and lower costs...the actual cost of prescription medications is more than just the dollars and cents on the bill, according to a recent study. Researchers...estimate that illness and death resulting from nonoptimized medication therapy costs $528.4 billion annually...when you’re sick, a health care professional prescribes you a medication, you take it as directed, and you get better...But what happens a lot of the time is the medication regimen is not optimized...the prescription may not be exactly appropriate for your indication—not quite the right medication or dose—or you just don’t take the medication for whatever reason, don’t take them as directed, or the medication causes an adverse event or a new health problem...the current cost of each possible consequence...illnesses and deaths that result from nonoptimized medication therapy to be $528.4 billion...Nonoptimized medication therapy is a massive avoidable cost. If medications were prescribed, monitored, and taken properly, we wouldn’t face this cost, and patients would be healthier...To improve medication-related care...authors...would like to see a systematic and coordinated effort to break down prescriber–pharmacist silos and expand comprehensive medication management programs, in which clinical pharmacists have access to complete medical records, improved dialogue with other members of a patient’s health care team, and input as a medication is prescribed—similar to what is now taking place at many U.S. Veterans Affairs clinics.
- Health Canada approves ‘Viagra for women’ pill, loosens restrictions on taking it with alcohol (edmontonjournal.com)
In Canada, the libido pill will come with a warning to ‘limit’ alcohol consumption, in contrast to the U.S., where women must promise they’ll abstain while on the drug...Canada has approved the first “Viagra for women” pill — and, to the alarm of some experts, loosened restrictions around alcohol that have contributed to the drug’s lacklustre sales in the United States...In Canada, the libido pill will come with a warning to women to “limit” their alcohol consumption...The drug had been under review by Health Canada for more than two years. The federal agency issued a “notice of compliance” late last month...The U.S. Food and Drug Administration twice rebuffed Addyi before granting approval in 2015, and only after lobbying from a “grassroots” campaign called Even the Score — funded by Addyi’s makers, Sprout Pharmaceuticals — that accused the regulator of being sexist for approving sex medicines for men, but not for women...