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Indeed, the institutional, financial, sectional and political hurdles were many. But Sandoval understands what many have said for years: In order for Las Vegas to evolve, it needs better health care.

If Merck has answers regarding the efficacy of its mumps vaccine, it's not being forthright, says a letter filed by an attorney representing two former Merck virologists who are now whistleblowers. Originally filed in 2010, the suit claims that the pharma giant skewed the tests of its U.S.-exclusive mumps vaccine by adding animal antibodies to blood samples, resulting in 95% efficacy that kept competitors--who couldn't match the efficacy--off the market.

A U.S. jury on Thursday said Pfizer Inc. was not responsible for birth defects in a young girl whose mother took its antidepressant Zoloft while pregnant, the second straight win for the company out of hundreds of similar lawsuits. Plaintiff Rachel Robinson claimed in her 2011 lawsuit that Pfizer failed to warn that using Zoloft during pregnancy could cause birth defects and sought damages from the company after her now eight-year-old daughter was born with a rare, serious heart problem.

The second tenet of the APhA Code of Ethics states, "A pharmacist promotes the good of every patient in a caring, compassionate, and confidential manner." It sounds easy. It evokes an immediate response from each pharmacist and pharmacy technician: "I wouldn’t violate that, no matter what."

When the FDA turns away a potential new treatment, it sends the drug's maker what's called a complete response letter, detailing all the deficiencies that led to the rejection. Those forms aren't public, but most companies issue press releases describing their contents. However, as a new study reveals, there's often a wide gap between the FDA's actual issues and the sponsors' spin.

Pharma marketers are closely watching Amarin's  lawsuit demanding the right to talk up the off-label uses for its cardiovascular drug Vascepa. After all, if the legal attack against FDA regulations succeeds, that gives credence to drugmakers' free speech argument--and could open up new worlds of drug promotion.

Having spent 10 years toiling as a pharmacist under roughly two dozen managers, I know two facts to be true: Our society rewards good work with more work, and great worker bees do not necessarily make effective managers. If you’ve been a staff pharmacist for any length of time, you are likely to be familiar with the Peter Principle, the concept that individuals are promoted until they reach the level of their incompetence.

An official formulation of nasal naloxone for reversing opioid overdoses that doesn't have to be used off-label may be on the market soon. Lightlake Therapeutics has opened a rolling submission of the NDA for its nasal naloxone to the FDA, according to a release from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is partnering with the company to develop the drug.