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future of community pharmacy is a high-tech, connected world, where teleprescribing is common and pharmacists share information with patients via smart lenses. At least that is the vision of Dan Benamoz, RPh,..Pharmacy Development Services, a pharmacist training, consulting, and mentoring firm.

• Information sharing via "smart" lens
• Telepharmacy
• Pharmacogenomics
• Radio frequency technology

Consumer Reports’ poll shows one-third of Americans hit by high drug prices…Not all surprises are good, especially when that surprise means you pay more for a prescription drug you take all the time. Yet in the last 12 months, that’s exactly what happened...People said they paid an average of $39 above the usual cost for their prescription—and one in 10 said they paid a whopping $100 or more out-of-pocket..

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

pharma industry group in Australia has warned the government that it needs to do something to relieve the high costs of drug manufacturing in the country or continue to lose exports. Drug exports from Australia have fallen to $2.5 billion from $4 billion in 2012. Industry group Medicines Australia blamed high wages, taxes and a tangle of regulations for discouraging drugmakers from building or expanding there..

Richmond University Medical Center, Staten Island, N.Y., recently opened the first fully-functioning retail pharmacy… new 750-square-foot Richmond Pharmacy, which operates independently of the hospital, is expected to decrease the hospital’s readmission rates and improve medication adherence.

Sprout Pharmaceuticals is a small drug company with a potentially very big drug – the world’s first pill to boost women’s sex drive….Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce Tuesday whether it has approved Sprout’s drug, Addyi (flibanserin), ..plans to market as the "little pink pill"… Interest in Sprout’s libido pill is expected to run so high that, to curb potential misuse, Sprout has promised the FDA it won’t advertise the drug for 18 months on TV and radio.

Massachusetts is joining the state-level push to tamp down drug prices. Lawmakers are proposing new disclosures about pharma's pricing decisions, just as they are in other states. But unlike California's move to limit price increases, for instance, Massachusetts could actually cap prices on specialty meds… state officials would have the power to limit prices...

pharmacy benefit manager jobs are relatively rare,..pharmacists employed by PBMs found the following job aspects..

• most appealing: client interaction, constantly changing issues and challenges, flexible schedule, researching and evaluating clinical studies and peer-reviewed literature, and the opportunity to change pharmacy to a provider profession.
• least appealing: sitting at a desk for 8 to 10 hours a day and day-to-day functions such as answering emails, statistics, and paper work…a lack of direct patient contact.

small drugmaker…may succeed…in winning approval for the first drug to boost women's sexual desire…team that founded Sprout Pharmaceuticals is not new to the..business …previous company, Slate Pharmaceuticals, sold an implantable testosterone pellet.. ran afoul of federal rules,… FDA sent Slate an 11-page warning letter…"I can't remember seeing a warning letter with so many examples of misbranding in it," said Fugh-Berman, who … signed a petition urging the FDA to reject Addyi (flibanserin)

England's Cancer Drugs Fund has been ..dealing with budget overruns and backlash from drugmakers and patients unhappy with the fund's decision to ax certain meds from its list…National Institute of Health and Care Excellence will turn the CDF into a "managed access" fund for cancer drugs,… original plans for the CDF, established …essentially bypass NICE and provide funding for treatments rejected by the cost-effectiveness gatekeeper.