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Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Prescription drug addiction, the downward spiral of lives ruined, loved ones lost, and the cost to society were the focus of a daylong meeting convened...by Gov. Brian Sandoval, who called the problem a crisis...Without question this is one of the most important health challenges we currently face...calling prescription drug abuse "one of the deadliest epidemics" in the United States...Statistics are sobering. While overdose deaths related to opiates in Nevada have declined from 517 in 2010 to 382 last year, at least one Nevadan dies every day from an opiate overdose...From 2010 to 2014, hospital inpatient admissions related to opioids jumped to 3,783 from 2,993...Sandoval said he wants the panel to focus on duties and responsibilities of health care licensing boards; coordination among law enforcement; substance abuse treatment; and sale and availability of pharmaceuticals..."We seek answers, not excuses,"...

As federal regulators try to crack down on compounding pharmacies over safety concerns, a new report finds that spending by the Medicare Part D program for these medicines rose more than 600 percent over the past decade. And federal auditors say the trend raises questions about whether the drugs, which are customized for specific patient needs, were medically necessary or dispensed appropriately...Between 2006 and 2015...spending for compounded drugs went from $70 million to $508 million, a 625 percent increase...By comparison, spending for all prescription drugs covered by the program rose 167 percent during the same period...Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services...will review the data brief OIG (Office of the Inspector General) released as it continues to monitor drug spending and trends in Part D...the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists...does not condone marketing or billing practices involving fraud, waste or abuse…Clearly, proper controls around the billing of compounded medications are needed to ensure patients can still access these important medications. It is apparent from the OIG report those proper controls are not in place...

Parata Systems and Pharmacy Times  2016 Next-Generation Pharmacist® Awards Gala, which honor pharmacists, technicians, student pharmacists and industry advocates who are defining the future of the industry, will be on August 6, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Dr. Zachery Halford, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy...for Roseman University’s College of Pharmacy, was named one of the finalists in the Specialty Pharmacist category...

A divided U.S. Supreme Court...rejected an appeal filed by pharmacists in Washington state who objected on religious grounds to providing emergency contraceptives to women...The justices, with three conservatives dissenting, left in place a July ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a state regulation that requires pharmacies to deliver all prescribed medicines in a timely manner...In Washington, the state permits a religiously objecting individual pharmacist to deny medicine, as long as another pharmacist working at the location provides timely delivery. The rules require a pharmacy to deliver all medicine, even if the owner objects...Alito said there is evidence the regulation was adopted because of "hostility to pharmacists whose religious beliefs regarding abortion and contraception are out of step with prevailing opinion in the state."..."If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern," Alito added.

Justin Gallagher, associate publisher of The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Pharmacists are weighed down with the strain of coping with their workload, the stress of the job and numerous other concerns, according to...new research...Workload and stress are the main challenges facing pharmacists today in their day-to-day practice. Three-quarters are "extremely" or "very" concerned about coping, according to a survey of pharmacists’ attitudes by CIG Research...We can...reveal that pharmacists working in multiples are more worried about stress and overwork than their counterparts in independent outlets. Pharmacists in multiples are also equally as concerned about meeting targets – something that is much less of an issue for independents, who rank funding, stock shortages, regulatory demands, and GPhC inspections as greater challenges...

Indonesian lawmakers...urged authorities to seize from hospitals and health clinics all vaccines made by unapproved manufacturers, after police exposed a syndicate selling fake child vaccines for more than a decade...In a country where counterfeit drugs are widespread, the case deals a blow to government health regulators whom many believed to have kept a tight leash on the distribution of vaccines...Authorities have shut some private health facilities after police smashed a drug-making ring last week that sold fake and potentially harmful booster vaccines for measles, hepatitis B and other viruses in Jakarta and the island of Java...Police uncovered the syndicate after a pharmacist in Bekasi...was arrested in May for selling medicine without a license. The drugs turned out to be fake and led to the arrest of 14 distributors and makers of the fake vaccines, whose ingredients included the antibiotic gentamicin and saline...

Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

National Institutes of Health...rejected a request by several consumer groups to override the patent on a prostate cancer drug because the medicine is more expensive in the United States than elsewhere...(consumer) groups petitioned the NIH to take this step, which is known as a march-in right, to help US patients because federally funded research was used to create Xtandi (enzalutamide). The drug is sold by Astellas Pharma and has an average wholesale price in the United States of more than $129,000, about two to four times more than what other high-income countries are paying...Under federal law, a march-in right allows an agency that funds private research to require a drug maker to license its patent to another party in order to "alleviate health and safety needs which are not being reasonably satisfied" or when the benefits of a drug are not available on "reasonable terms."...the NIH denied the petition because there was no information to suggest that Xtandi is or will be in short supply...The consumer group plans to submit an appeal...and said it will base its appeal on the NIH’s "flawed legal rationale" about the use of march-in rights and "its lack of analysis concerning its refusal to use a royalty-free license."