- Teva to recall certain blood pressure medicine in U.S. (reuters.com)
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd is recalling certain combinations of blood pressure drug valsartan in the United States following the detection of a probable cancer-causing impurity...The...drugmaker will recall all lots of amlodipine-valsartan and amlodipine-valsartan-hydrochlorothiazide combination tablets due to an impurity in an ingredient made by an India-based unit of Mylan, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...The European Union last week effectively banned here sales of valsartan made by the Mylan India unit after some batches were found to contain the same impurity, N-nitrosodiethylamine...
- Florida’s opioid lawsuit against CVS and Walgreens takes aim at distributors with deep pockets (cnbc.com)
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has added Walgreens and CVS Health as defendants in the state's massive lawsuit against the opioid industry...Legal analysts say Florida and other plaintiffs are targeting the distributors and pharmacies, in part, because they have deep pockets...The...lawsuit accuses the drug stores and pharmaceutical distributors like Cardinal Health, Amerisource Bergen and McKesson of playing as big a role in the proliferation of opioid addiction as drug manufacturers like...Purdue Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals...
- More Pharmacists Move into Medical Practices, More Doctors See Value (drugtopics.com)
Just as hospital pharmacists moved out of the basement and into direct patient care in the 1980s and 1990s, outpatient pharmacists are moving out from behind the counter and into medical practices...There is a demand for pharmacists from the physician side in ambulatory care...Allegheny Health Network...is putting pharmacists into about 250 different practices that are part of its accountable care organization, a payment model in which the health system receives higher reimbursement if it improves quality and reduces costs…The present model, which is physician-centric, is not getting us to that quadruple aim of better outcomes, lower costs, better patient satisfaction, and improving the work life of our healthcare providers. We are moving to a patient-focused model using team-based care...The pharmacist is not able to bring in direct revenue, but you can see a decrease in 30-day readmissions, a decrease in morbidity, a decrease in ER admissions because you have a pharmacist doing medication management and reconciliation. It is a matter of recognizing that the costs you are saving are different from direct billing...
- FDA plan would ease regulations for prescription drug apps (biopharmadive.com)
The Food and Drug Administration is seeking public comment on a proposed framework for regulating software applications developed by drugmakers for use in conjunction with their prescription drug products...The new approach would treat most prescription drug apps, including dose calculators, symptom trackers and medication reminders, as promotional labeling...drugmakers would need only to submit to the agency copies of the content of what the apps display to consumers, following existing reporting requirements for promotional materials...In other cases, such as when a drugmaker wants to show that software has an effect on a clinical outcome and wants to include information about the software in the FDA-required drug labeling, prior FDA approval would be required...
- Medicine or vice? Socially screened funds struggle to define cannabis industry (reuters.com)
Is marijuana a medicine or a vice?..The $8 trillion U.S. socially responsible investment industry is grappling with that question as more states approve the recreational use of cannabis, pushing consumption closer to “sin” stocks like alcohol and tobacco that ethically focused investors avoid...No U.S. public companies are directly selling marijuana, but Canadian marijuana producers like Tilray Inc and Canopy Growth Corp are on U.S. exchanges...Marijuana is used to treat a range of conditions from epilepsy to migraines...There’s a lot of mixed feelings about cannabis, whereas with tobacco there’s a lot of consensus that tobacco is not safe in any amount...
- This Week in Managed Care: November 23, 2018 (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
- Med school panel urges UNLV students to provide Vegas-style customer care (lasvegassun.com)
In a city where quality customer service and visitor experience run the economy, professionals at UNLV’s medical school said embracing the same principles for sick patients will determine which future physicians rise above the pack...The level of service you have to provide has to mimic level of service that hotels provide to their guests…in Las Vegas, medical care providers must also go the extra mile to meet the standards of other industries’ high bar for customer service...that means offering tourists a courier service to deliver prescriptions to hotel rooms and daily phone calls checking in on the patient until the end of the patient’s Las Vegas vacation...
- UK vows to speed up drug review in return for 2% sales cap (in-pharmatechnologist.com)
UK government and ABPI have agreed a deal to limit branded drug sales growth to 2%, potentially reducing the cost of medicine by £930m ($1.18b)...The announcement was made after the UK government and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry provisionally signed the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access...the two key details released are: branded medicines will be subject to a 2% cap on sales growth – with pharma companies repaying the NHS for sales over this limit – and appraisals of new technology applications by NICE will be completed up to six months faster than current timelines...
- November 23 Pharmacy Week in Review: FDA Approves Rifamycin for Travelers-related Illness, Study Finds Incidence of Eczema is Much Higher Than Other Inflammatory Conditions (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.
- Britain’s Storied National Health Service Is Chasing A Tech Upgrade (forbes.com)
The British take enormous pride in their National Health Service…Get sick in Britain and you can see a doctor, get a scan or even have surgery for free...Unfortunately the system also depends on tax money that can’t keep pace with an ageing population who need greater care than ever. Its deficit is estimated to be closing in on £1 billion ($1.3 billion)...Many believe technology can make the NHS more efficient, and so it has partnered with private companies...to serve NHS patients at a lower cost, by connecting them with doctors on a video call or even an automated symptom checker...Some worry that such deals spell the slow-and-steady privatization of the NHS and a move (God forbid) towards a system that looks more like that of the United States. But Hancock (Matt Hancock - health secretary) believes these partnerships are necessary if the NHS is going to survive.