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David Lassen, chief clinical officer at Prime Therapeutics, discusses changes in store for the field of specialty pharmacy in the coming years. (video)

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued guidelines on biosimilar reimbursement,.. plans to create a separate code to distinguish a biosimilar from a reference biological, but that any distinguishing identifiers will “have no bearing on coding and payment.” .. the Biosimilars Forum sent a letter to … CMS,.. saying that the proposed rule would limit biosimilar options as a result of reduced investment in their development…

..In the midst of rapid expansion of medical knowledge...too few actually understand medical information well enough to improve their health…. US adults scored below the international average for literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments… too many patients still have difficulty...such as taking the right medicine at the right time, properly self-managing diabetes, or correctly following hospital discharge instructions...

Drew Armstrong reports on the rising cost of drugs. He speaks on "Bloomberg Markets." (video)

GlaxoSmithKline closed its North Carolina factory on Tuesday after testing at a cooling tower found bacteria that causes deadly Legionnaire's disease…Legionella bacteria (Legionella pneumophila) was discovered during routine inspections at the site in Zebulon,…

FDA released guidance… directed at companies that are considering registering with the agency as an outsourcing facility under…the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act… guidance is in response to questions the agency received from companies about which activities (e.g., drug compounding) would require a company to register as an outsourcing facility and, therefore, be subject to registration fees…

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services…released its latest forecasts for national health expenditures...2014, prescription drug spending growth was higher than the growth in total U.S. healthcare spending...the next 10 years,..drug spending is projected to closely track overall healthcare spending. By 2024,.. will spend about $560 billion annually on outpatient prescription drugs...the perceptions that drugs prices are "too high," outpatient prescription drugs will only account for about one of every 10 U.S. healthcare dollars....

World Courier (AmerisourceBergen) launched its Climate Optimisation Research & Engineering Labs to help pharmaceutical manufacturer clients evaluate, validate, and select the right climate-controlled packaging solutions for their specific needs,…The new solution center aims to…provide recommended combinations of the right packaging for the right transport route; and develop new packaging solutions with industry partners in situations where customer needs require novel solutions.

Office of the National Coordinator for Healthcare Information technology puts interoperability front and center this week, comes a survey that shows healthcare professionals are skeptical it can be achieved in 10 years…"Interoperability in 10 years is unquestionably a worthy goal, but our experience has shown that this is a complex area and providers need secure universal solutions in the interim,"...

Experts from the CVS Health Research Institute,.. are calling for a reconsideration of treatment guidelines for high cholesterol as PCSK9 inhibitors hit the market…"As PCSK9 inhibitors become available, the current cholesterol management guidelines do not provide clarity as to how these expensive new medications could fit in the treatment paradigm, potentially resulting in some scenarios where a prescriber could consider a PCSK9 inhibitor for a low-risk patient,"