- Antibiotics sales for use in U.S. farm animals rose in 2015: FDA (reuters.com)
U.S. sales and distribution of antibiotics approved for use in food-producing animals increased 1 percent from 2014 to 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a report...Scientists have warned that regular use of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent illness in healthy farm animals contributes to the rise of dangerous, antibiotic-resistant "superbug" infections, which...pose a significant threat to global health...An estimated 70 percent of antibiotics used to fight human infections and to ensure the safety of surgery and other invasive procedures are sold in the United States for use in meat production...In 2015, sales and distribution of those medically important antibiotics for food production rose 2 percent...Medically important antimicrobials accounted for 62 percent of the domestic sales of all antimicrobials approved for use in farm animals...McDonald's USA and some other chains have switched to serving chicken raised without antibiotics important to human health…
- Mylan launches first generic EpiPen as state AGs sue generics makers for price collusion (drugdeliverybusiness.com)
Mylan launched its 1st generic EpiPen emergency allergy treatment 1 day after attorney generals from 20 states filed a civil complaint against Mylan, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and 4 other generic drug makers. The complaint alleges that the companies co-conspired in informal gatherings, calls and text messages to fix the price for glyburide...and doxycycline hyclate...The generic EpiPen will sell for $300 per two-pack, which is a 50% discount compared to the price of the brand name device...Mylan CEO Heather Bresch said in a statement...“Unfortunately, families will continue to face sticker shock for medications and may be forced to make difficult choices until the pharmaceutical pricing system is reformed to address the increasing shift of costs directly to consumers.”...The 4 other companies targeted by the complaint are Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Aurobindo Pharma, Citron Pharma and Mayne Pharma...
- Legal pot growers to drive up California warehouse rates (reuters.com)
Legalizing recreational marijuana in California is creating a gold rush for a decidedly less intoxicating sector: warehouses in which to grow the plants...Investors have few options to cash in directly on the state's recent decision to legalize the drug, as there are no publicly traded cannabis producing companies and marijuana remains illegal under federal law. However, they are anticipating a lift in demand for warehouses as legal pot companies search for space to grow their supply...Shares of industrial warehouse companies such as Prologis Inc, Rexford Industrial Realty Inc and Terreno Realty Corp that have significant exposure to the California market should benefit even if they do not lease to marijuana companies directly…cannabis companies are expected to pay above-market rates for older, outmoded facilities that are more suitable for growing plants indoors and storing products containing marijuana, taking out some of the vacancy in an already-tight market and pushing overall rents higher...Cannabis companies are going to find some distressed properties and get them up and running, and in many cases they will have the capital to pay whatever it takes to get space...
- China’s OxyContin Boom Is a Gold Mine for This Drugmaker (bloomberg.com)
With its harsh anti-narcotics laws and painful history with debilitating opium epidemics in the 19th-century, China wouldn’t spring to mind as a promising market for OxyContin, a painkiller that has been at the center of an opioid addiction outbreak in the U.S…Yet in China, powered by soaring cancer rates and an aging population, OxyContin is turning into a hit. And the drug company behind the brand is giving sales an added boost through an outreach push to physicians and by working with the most powerful of allies—the Chinese government...OxyContin is sold...by Mundipharma (China) Pharmaceutical Co., a company associated with...Purdue Pharma LP, the seller of the long-acting opioid in the U.S...China faces ever greater challenges in managing the use of inherently risky opioids within its sprawling, state-run health-care system.
- Senate Aims to Stop Firms From ‘Buying Up Drugs and Jacking Up Prices’ (nytimes.com)
On the heels of headline-grabbing price spikes on prescription drugs, a bipartisan Senate report on Wednesday will call on Congress to take action to prevent huge, unjustified cost increases on decades-old prescription medicines that have no competition...The Senate Special Committee on Aging, reporting the results of a yearlong investigation, said that some drug companies behaved like hedge funds because of the influence of “activist investors.” These companies, the committee said, have developed a “business model that harms patients, taxpayers and the U.S. health care system.”...Our report does not recommend that the government get into the business of setting prices for prescription drugs...We think that would have a harmful impact on the pipeline of innovative drugs...I don’t think we can ignore the market failures that have occurred. The answer is to figure out how we can revitalize the market so that generic drug producers have incentives to compete with companies that are buying up drugs and jacking up prices to make quick, exorbitant profits...
- Looking For Bargains, Many Americans Buy Medicines Abroad (npr.org)
As drug prices have spiraled upward, tens of millions of generally law-abiding Americans have committed an illegal act in response: They have bought prescriptions medicines outside the U.S. and imported them...It's no secret that some Americans regularly buy prescription drugs on the Internet or while traveling abroad. But the popularity of the approach is underscored by the results of a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted in November...Eight percent of respondents said they or someone in their household had imported a drug at some point...The Kaiser poll queried a nationally representative sample of 1,202 adults...The Food and Drug Administration has cautioned that many online pharmacies aren't what they seem to be. An international crackdown in 2014 found that many packages of medicines purportedly from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. contained drugs from other countries, including India, China and Laos...imported medications could be inferior or expired. Some could be counterfeits. But many medicines purchased from another country are the same as the ones patients buy in the U.S...When purchased outside the country, many prescription medicines cost half or less than they do in the U.S...it is generally illegal for Americans to import drugs into the U.S. for personal use. The law isn't rigorously enforced, in part, because it is difficult to monitor the entry of medicine in suitcases and small packages...in 2015 the FDA implemented a rule that would give government border inspectors expanded authority to destroy drugs imported for personal use at their point of entry.
- Cannabis Testing Lab In Nevada Gains Accreditation For Quality Standards (kunr.org)
As the marijuana industry is expanding in Nevada, cannabis testing labs are playing an important role in the quality of the end-product...a local facility is upping the standard of its operations...Jason Strull is a toxicologist at 374 Labs located in Northern Nevada. The facility recently received additional accreditation—ISO 17025—from an independent, non-governmental auditor for its stringent testing methods, yielding consistent results regarding toxicology and potency...“And as far as cannabis testing goes, it’s sort of the wild, wild West,” Strull explains. “So what this shows to potential customers, and just the general public, is that we’re going the extra mile.”
- NPAC advocates separation of medical and recreational cannabis (drugstorenews.com)
The Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada...applauded the federal government's Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation for recognizing the need to preserve the system of medical cannabis separate from the recreational system...the Task Force clearly noted Neighbourhood Pharmacies' proposition that medical cannabis is a serious drug and that Canadians expect that strength and packaging standards applied to prescription medications be applied to cannabis...We're looking forward to meeting with provincial pharmacy regulatory authorities, the pharmacy community and lawmakers to shape retail rules...We will continue to advocate for patient centric regulations that bring those using medical cannabis into the circle of care…
- What do new FDA letters dinging ‘misleading’ pharma TV ads mean for the industry? (fiercepharma.com)
FDA admonishment of Celgene and Sanofi for DTC TV ads has industry insiders checking the tea leaves for what the letters might signal. The upshot? Possibly an end to overly happy and energetic lifestyle pharma ads...The main complaint in both untitled letters from FDA drug marketing enforcer OPDP (Office of Prescription Drug Promotion) —to Celgene for oral psoriasis treatment Otezla and Sanofi for diabetes drug Toujeo—is distracting music and visuals that interfere with consumers fully understanding the risk information. Both ads have been running since this summer...These commercials are not much different from many other upbeat DTC ads with music...If they are cracking down on these two, then they have decided to look at all of these type of ads. FDA is very subjective about these kind of violations...Sanofi told FiercePharma in an interview last week that it is working to pull the Toujeo TV ads, while Celgene said more broadly that it will work with the FDA to address its concern.
- Pharmacies miss half of dangerous drug combinations (chicagotribune.com)
In the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind, the Tribune tested 255 pharmacies to see how often stores would dispense dangerous drug pairs without warning patients. Fifty-two percent of the pharmacies sold the medications without mentioning the potential interaction, striking evidence of an industry-wide failure that places millions of consumers at risk...CVS...had the highest failure rate of any chain in the Tribune tests, dispensing the medications with no warning 63 percent of the time. Walgreens...had the lowest failure rate at 30 percent — but that's still missing nearly 1 in 3 interactions... There is a very high sense of urgency to pursue this issue and get to the root cause...test after test, other pharmacists dispensed dangerous drug pairs at a fast-food pace, with little attention paid to customers. They failed to catch combinations that could trigger a stroke, result in kidney failure, deprive the body of oxygen or lead to unexpected pregnancy with a risk of birth defects...The Tribune study...exposes fundamental flaws in the pharmacy industry. Safety laws are not being followed, computer alert systems designed to flag drug interactions either don't work or are ignored, and some pharmacies emphasize fast service over patient safety. Several chain pharmacists, in interviews, described assembly-line conditions in which staff hurried to fill hundreds of prescriptions a day.