- UMC turns financial corner, in midst of ‘rebirth,’ CEO says (reviewjournal.com)
Less than two years after University Medical Center received $25.5 million in loans and eliminated hundreds of positions, the hospital is in the midst of a financial "rebirth," according to CEO Mason VanHouweling...At a meeting of the Clark County Commission...the county revealed UMC is expected to receive a $31 million subsidy — the same subsidy it received for the 2016 fiscal year and far less than it requested in years past...VanHouweling said the hospital has been able to "turn a financial corner"...As a facility that serves a large number of indigent patients, the hospital requires at least some funding from the county to function...It was never designed to generate the type of revenue that private hospitals today can generate...UMC is planning to modernize and remodel infrastructure at its main campus as well as at its primary and quick care facilities. The hospital also plans to move to a new electronic health records system and upgrade technology in operating rooms...the hospital is carefully watching for any possible reductions to disproportionate share hospital, or DSH payments, which help to offset the costs of care given to indigent patients. DSH payments are expected to be reduced nationwide, which would hurt UMC.
- National Poison Prevention Week Promotes Safe Medication Storage (nabp.net)National Take-Back Initiative - April 30, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM (deadiversion.usdoj.gov)
The Poison Prevention Week Council aims to educate consumers about the prevention of unintentional poisonings and accidental exposures around the home. This year’s National Poison Prevention Week focuses on preventing accidental medicine ingestions by young children. The Up and Away and Out of Sight campaign reminds consumers that storing medicines safely is an important part of preventing poisonings in the home...This year National Poison Prevention Week is March 20 through March 26...Additional information and poison prevention educational resources are available on the Poison Prevention website...NABP’s AWARxE Prescription Drug Safety Program website has advice on properly storing medications to prevent accidental ingestion...in the Secure Storage section. The AWARxE website also has a Drug Disposal Locator Tool that provides locations of permanent drug disposal sites in the US. Safely disposing of unwanted medications can help prevent exposing young children to accidental ingestion.
- Medicine Shoppe Canada to open store-within-a-store concept inside Quality Foods location (drugstorenews.com)
Medicine Shoppe Canada and its parent company, McKesson Canada, on Friday announced a partnership with Quality Foods, a Canadian grocery chain, to drive better patient experience in retail pharmacy...This partnership will see the opening of a new, state-of-the-art pharmacy within a leading grocery store – designed with evolving patient centric care models in mind. Long-time community pharmacist, Larry Johannessen...will operate the new location within the Port Alberni Quality Foods..."As pharmacists, patient and customer care is at the heart of what we do, each and every day", Johannessen said. "I’m excited to partner with Quality Foods to welcome patients into our new facility as we expand access to patient care."
- Doctors taking a shine to biosimilars as they get experience with them (fiercepharma.com)
Three years ago, doctors in Europe displayed grave doubts about using biosimilars instead of branded biologics on their patients. But after a couple of years of experience with a biosimilar of Merck's Remicade (infliximab) from Hospira and Celltrion, a new report finds doctors are much more responsive to the biologic copies...The survey of European Crohn's and Colitis Organization members was released Friday at ECCO's 11th Congress in Amsterdam. It found that 44.4% of physicians taking the survey considered the Remicade biosimilar, a mAb, interchangeable with the original product...The key advantage of using biosimilars is to save money...while...their key concern with using them is immunogenicity...The survey results are potentially promising for drugmakers taking biosimilars to the U.S. market which is just now opening up but offers the biggest payoff. Citigroup analysts estimate innovative biologics will lose $110 billion in sales to copycats by 2025.
- Health insurer Anthem sues Express Scripts over drug pricing (reuters.com)
...Anthem Inc said it had sued pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts Holding Co to recover damages from drug pricing it believes was too high...latest development in a months-long dispute over Anthem's contract with Express Scripts...The lawsuit also seeks to recover damages from operational issues and for a declaration of Anthem's right to terminate its contract with Express Scripts…Anthem, which has been seeking $3 billion in annual cost savings through a repricing provision in its 10-year contract with Express Scripts, said it had not yet decided whether to end the contract...The latest news has taken a very unhealthy turn and we see it unlikely that Anthem renews its contract with Express Scripts past 2019, and is likely to leave sooner to the extent it can manage the transition for consumers smoothly...Express Scripts...said in a statement that it believed the lawsuit to be without merit. The company has consistently acted in good faith and in accordance with the terms of its agreement with Anthem…
- Illicit drugs? How Brexit risks legal limbo for medicines (reuters.com)
A British vote to leave the European Union would threaten some prescription medicines with regulatory limbo, posing a legal headache for drugmakers, according to lawyers and industry officials...The highly regulated pharmaceutical sector has more at stake than most from a so-called Brexit, prompting top manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, both of which oppose exit, to draw up detailed contingency plans...Currently, under EU rules, drugmakers launching a medicine get a single marketing approval that allows them to tap the entire European market of 500 million potential patients...In the event of a British exit, UK firms could no longer apply for or hold EU marketing authorizations, unless or until the UK negotiated to be part of the EEA. Licences would have to be transferred to businesses inside remaining member states..."The potential complexities around such issues as marketing authorization simply highlight the problems that could be faced by companies and patients alike in the event of exiting the EU,"...GlaxoSmithKline said leaving the EU would create uncertainty, add complexity and making some short-term disruption likely...
- ASHP Publishes Specialty Resource Guide (ashp.org)ASHP Specialty Pharmacy Resource Guide (ashp.org)
ASHP has released the ASHP Specialty Pharmacy Resource Guide, a new publication that outlines ways for hospitals and health systems to address the challenges and opportunities presented by specialty pharmacy, the fastest growing segment of the pharmaceutical industry... It is projected that by 2020, specialty pharmaceuticals will represent half of all drug expenditures, driving pharmacy directors to seek out strategies to address the impact of the products on pharmacy services. The resource guide discusses the financial, legal, administrative, and patient care aspects of four specialty pharmacy business models and helps users determine which model best matches their needs.
- SENDing data to meet new FDA standards (outsourcing-pharma.com)
According to PDS (PDS Life Sciences), SEND Express is a "turnkey solution for the generation of Standard for Exchange of Nonclinical Data datasets."...We aggregate and harmonize data from multiple organizations, information systems and file formats...to produce one set of harmonized SEND files, including define.xml and define.pdf, as required by the FDA...The platform's launch parallels the FDA's deadline for standardized electronic data submissions, which will require all datasets from studies supporting new drug applications, biologics license applications, and abbreviated new drug applications to be submitted in SEND format by Dec. 17...Having an industrywide, harmonized model allows for efficient analysis by regulatory authorities...The common formats assist in enabling the exchange of nonclinical data within companies and consortiums...this consistency of data makes it easier for vendors to develop tools that can use this data...
- NACDS: Pharmacists make impact on Congress with new ad debut (drugstorenews.com)
The National Association of Chain Drug Stores...announced the expansion of its get-out-the-vote initiative for 2016, with new video ads to encourage pharmacy personnel to volunteer and vote for the candidates of their choice...The new ads are part of the larger NACDS RxIMPACT Votes get-out-the-vote effort, one aspect of NACDS’ suite of grassroots advocacy resources under the NACDS RxIMPACT name. The ads will bear the "hashtag" #PharmacyVoter that will be used in social media to foster a community-wide focus on voter engagement. NACDS also launched PharmacyVoter.org – a website targeted to the pharmacy community to showcase the effort... The first 30-second ad — called "Effective" — debuted...during the launch of NACDS RxIMPACT Day on Capitol Hill, when nearly 400 pharmacy advocates will meet with 90% of the U.S. Congress to discuss key patient care issues.
- WHO suspends TB drugs from big India supplier on quality fears (reuters.com)
World Health Organization has suspended the approval of tuberculosis drugs made by India's Svizera Labs, a major supplier to developing countries, following an investigation into standards...The United Nations agency, which acts as a drug watchdog in markets lacking robust local regulation, said on Friday it had suspended all TB products made at Svizera's Mumbai site because manufacturing standards and quality management were unreliable...It also said independent experts should retest batches of medicine already on the market and it might be necessary to recall supplies, depending on the outcome of those tests...The move is a fresh blow for India's pharmaceuticals industry, which supplies cheap generic medicines to countries worldwide but has been tarnished by a series of quality problems in recent years, denting confidence in its products...The WHO plays a critical role in monitoring drug quality in poorer countries through its Prequalification of Medicines Program, which ensures that treatments supplied by U.N. agencies such as UNICEF are of acceptable quality.