- Hurricane Joaquin: Help Prepared for Pharmacies (pharmacytimes.com)Tracking Hurricane Joaquin (healthcareready.org)
Healthcare Ready, which helps strengthen health care supply chains during disasters…trains for disasters such as Category 4 Hurricane Joaquin on an annual basis with a crisis simulation exercise. She said Healthcare Ready would adopt an "alert status" on October 2, 2015, and start response procedures to help communities in case the hurricane touched down on the East Coast...(Executive director Emily Lord).. spoke with Pharmacy Times further about the role Healthcare Ready plays in emergency situations.
- What’s the most common event that Healthcare Ready is called upon to help?
- How does Healthcare Ready advocate for increased participation of pharmacists in public health initiatives?
- How did Healthcare Ready help during Hurricane Sandy?
- How does Healthcare Ready collaborate with government agencies/industry partners?
- Vetter Embarks on 300-Million Euro Manufacturing Expansion (pharmtech.com)
Vetter will invest approximately 300 million Euros ($335 million) to expand and upgrade its manufacturing facilities...The upgrades are being driven by a changing healthcare market that is affected by issues such as increasingly complex molecules, smaller batch sizes, and more stringent regulatory requirements. Expansion of three sites in Germany will add capacity for logistic services and drug-product manufacturing using an improved system for aseptic processing.
- MannKind engages in third round of layoffs in Danbury (newstimes.com)
MannKind…has laid off workers as part of a reorganization effort amid slower-than-expected revenue from the company’s main product (Afrezza, insulin inhalation) …job cuts this year - as part of an ongoing effort of "right-sizing the company to reflect anticipated demand and operational needs."… aimed at providing a more efficient operating structure…
- Teva to Buy Rimsa for About $2.3 Billion (bloomberg.com)
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. agreed to buy Mexican drugmaker Representaciones e Investigaciones Médicas SA and some assets for $2.3 billion, furthering the Israeli company’s goal of expanding in emerging markets… offers a path into Latin America’s second-largest health-care market.
- Pharmacy Week in Review: October 2, 2015 (pharmacytimes.com)
Brian Haug, President of Pharmacy and Managed Markets, Pharmacy Times (PTNN) This weekly video program highlights the latest in pharmacy news, product news, and more. (video)
- Drugmaker Tactic to Block Generics May Violate Law, FTC Says (bloomberg.com)
Pharmaceutical companies that make minor tweaks to brand-name drugs in order to blunt competition from cheaper generic treatments may be violating antitrust laws, the Federal Trade Commission said…known as "product-hopping," harms consumers who save billions of dollars each year through generic competition and undermines laws that allow pharmacists to automatically substitute brand-name drugs with low-cost copycats, …"Such conduct could deprive generic companies of their most efficient means of distribution -- automatic substitution at the pharmacy -- and, as a result, maintain the brand’s monopoly through illegal means,"
- Can Biosimilars Reduce Specialty Spending? (specialtypharmacytimes.com)
David Lassen, chief clinical officer at Prime Therapeutics, discusses the potential long term impact from biosimilars on the specialty drug landscape.
- A <797> Rewritten with Patient Safety in Mind (qualitymatters.usp.org)
…the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak connected to the New England Compounding Center…brought to light that standards for safe compounding do exist, but their enforcement may be inconsistent. So…<797> was revised having patient safety in mind, by making the standards for compounding sterile preparations as clear as possible to practitioners… Expert Panel was charged with taking a fresh look at the chapter from beginning to end and making recommendations for improved clarity and responding to stakeholder input…They have…helped tailor its language to make it clearer to users and regulators… As a user of <797>, I encourage you to get involved in USP’s the standard-setting process and comment on the revised chapter, which was pre-posted for public comment on September 25, 2015.
- Massive, unexpected drug price increases are happening all the time (qz.com)
Firms raise prices frequently as they try to make as much money as possible before patents expire, recoup their investments, and make up for the high failure rate of pharmaceutical research…data from Wolters Kluwer’s PriceRx...shows why the implied threat of price controls has pharma investors running so scared. The average price increase for products made by specialty pharmaceutical companies, which concentrate on pricier drugs, was 16% in 2012, 29% in 2013, 22% in 2014, and 19% so far in 2015…Valeant is the biggest standout. …has pursued a strategy of buying out other companies and drugs, slashing R&D budgets, and dramatically increasing prices. Its average price increase so far this year is 66%.
- Millennium Health Lenders Said Sparring Over Bankruptcy Proposal (bloomberg.com)
Millennium Health LLC is struggling to wrangle enough support for a debt restructuring plan that would allow it to settle a federal billing probe by a deadline this week,… Millennium is negotiating the terms for a bankruptcy filing at the same time that it’s finalizing a $275 million settlement of a federal investigation into its billing practices,..The Department of Justice has said it must have a plan to pay the sum by the end of this week…