- AI could shorten pharmaceutical trials, boost patient matching, Intel report says (healthcareitnews.com)
The company (Intel) says algorithms can simplify trials and accelerate time to market for new drugs...Efforts to implement artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and machine learning could have multiple applications for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries...The report, “Harnessing AI and Analytics to Drive Digital Transformation,” comes as health systems across the country are working to deploy advanced data analytics to provide faster care for their patients...AI-based algorithms can optimize clinical trial design by eliminating testing criteria that increases time but has a minimal impact on the overall effectiveness of what is being tested...READ MORE
- This Week in Managed Care: April 19, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- U.S. charges pummel drugmaker Indivior, hurt Reckitt (reuters.com)
Indivior Plc lost nearly three-quarters of its stock market value...and former parent Reckitt Benckiser also fell after the U.S. Justice Department accused the British drugmaker of illegally boosting prescriptions for its blockbuster opioid addiction treatment Suboxone...An indictment...alleged Indivior made billions of dollars by deceiving doctors and healthcare benefit programs into believing the film version of Suboxone was safer and less susceptible to abuse than similar drugs...The indictment charged Indivior and its subsidiary Indivior Inc with conspiracy, health care fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud. The U.S. government said it would seek to have it forfeit at least $3 billion...READ MORE
- This Week in Managed Care: April 12, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- Wary of Chinese Espionage, Houston Cancer Center Chose to Fire 3 Scientists (nytimes.com)
The MD Anderson Cancer Center said it decided to fire three scientists who, among other allegations, failed to disclose international collaborators. Two of them resigned...in connection with an investigation into possible foreign attempts to take advantage of its federally funded research...Federal officials said they found that some researchers had shared with Beijing intellectual property and pilfered confidential information from grant applications. Other researchers had failed to disclose that they were receiving money from foreign sources while being funded by the N.I.H...Federal officials have said that some scientists have run “shadow laboratories” in China while conducting N.I.H.-funded research in the United States. This month, the N.I.H. said 55 institutions across the country are investigating such concerns...READ MORE
- April 19 Pharmacy Week in Review: Experimental Ebola Vaccine Demonstrates Protection, Kratom Linked to Overdose Deaths (pharmacytimes.com)
Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.
- U.S. Supreme Court rejects Allergan bid to use tribe to shield drug patents (reuters.com)
The U.S. Supreme Court...cast aside pharmaceutical company Allergan Plc’s unorthodox bid to shield patents from a federal administrative court’s review by transferring them to a Native American tribe...The justices left in place a lower court ruling upholding the authority of a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tribunal to decide the validity of patents covering Allergan’s dry eye drug Restasis, refusing to hear the company’s appeal. Allergan had argued that the tribe’s sovereign status under federal law made the patents immune from administrative review by the agency...Allergan, which has its headquarters in Dublin, in September 2017 transferred the patents to New York’s Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, which took legal ownership of the patents and then licensed them back to Allergan in exchange for ongoing payments...Allergan said it was protecting itself from the patent court, which it called a flawed and biased forum...READ MORE
- Not So Fast on Ending Rebates for Prescription Drugs (realclearhealth.com)
Give President Trump credit for acting on his promise to bring down prices for prescription drugs. But one policy idea his administration has proposed needs a second look...The Department of Health and Human Services has proposed a rule that would end rebates that drug companies pay to Part D and Medicaid-managed organizations for the prescription drug equivalent of preferential shelf placement and instead require savings from any such rebates be passed along to consumers... if this regulation goes final...it may even mean lower prices for some drugs in some cases...But Big Pharma...will realize a windfall of up $100 billion per year...what Part D participants pay in premiums and taxpayers shell out for Medicare and Medicaid – would go up...READ MORE
- Dozens of doctors in 5 states charged with illegally dispensing 32 million painkillers, sometimes for sex (cnbc.com)
The people charged across 11 federal districts, include 31 doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurse practitioners, and seven other licensed medical professionals...The cases involve more than 350,000 prescriptions for controlled substances across Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and West Virginia...The Justice Department said six individuals, including two doctors and three registered pharmacists were charged with several counts, including unlawful distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to obtain controlled substances by fraud...One arrest...involved a doctor in Kentucky who allegedly prescribed opioids to friends on Facebook, who would then come to his home to pick up prescriptions...Another case involved a doctor in Tennessee who branded himself the “Rock Doc.” He allegedly prescribed combinations of dangerous combinations of opioids and benzodiazepines, a class of psychoactive drugs, sometimes in exchange for sexual favors...READ MORE
- Walgreens, VillageMD to offer primary care services (chaindrugreview.com)
Walgreens and VillageMD...announced a collaboration focused on providing...primary care...VillageMD will operate...clinics next to five Walgreens stores in the Houston area...branded ‘Village Medical at Walgreens,’ will provide comprehensive primary care services, integrated tightly with pharmacists, nurses and social workers to meet the full suite of patient needs...READ MORE