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The Poison Prevention Week Council aims to educate consumers about the prevention of unintentional poisonings and accidental exposures around the home. This year’s National Poison Prevention Week focuses on preventing accidental medicine ingestions by young children. The Up and Away and Out of Sight campaign reminds consumers that storing medicines safely is an important part of preventing poisonings in the home...This year National Poison Prevention Week is March 20 through March 26...Additional information and poison prevention educational resources are available on the Poison Prevention website...NABP’s AWARxE Prescription Drug Safety Program website has advice on properly storing medications to prevent accidental ingestion...in the Secure Storage section. The AWARxE website also has a Drug Disposal Locator Tool that provides locations of permanent drug disposal sites in the US. Safely disposing of unwanted medications can help prevent exposing young children to accidental ingestion.

ASHP has released the ASHP Specialty Pharmacy Resource Guide, a new publication that outlines ways for hospitals and health systems to address the challenges and opportunities presented by specialty pharmacy, the fastest growing segment of the pharmaceutical industry... It is projected that by 2020, specialty pharmaceuticals will represent half of all drug expenditures, driving pharmacy directors to seek out strategies to address the impact of the products on pharmacy services. The resource guide discusses the financial, legal, administrative, and patient care aspects of four specialty pharmacy business models and helps users determine which model best matches their needs.

Three years ago, doctors in Europe displayed grave doubts about using biosimilars instead of branded biologics on their patients. But after a couple of years of experience with a biosimilar of Merck's Remicade (infliximab) from Hospira and Celltrion, a new report finds doctors are much more responsive to the biologic copies...The survey of European Crohn's and Colitis Organization members was released Friday at ECCO's 11th Congress in Amsterdam. It found that 44.4% of physicians taking the survey considered the Remicade biosimilar, a mAb, interchangeable with the original product...The key advantage of using biosimilars is to save money...while...their key concern with using them is immunogenicity...The survey results are potentially promising for drugmakers taking biosimilars to the U.S. market which is just now opening up but offers the biggest payoff. Citigroup analysts estimate innovative biologics will lose $110 billion in sales to copycats by 2025.

Jeffrey Fudin, PharmD, DAAPM, FCCP, FASHP, discusses and debunks the myths and hysteria surrounding the use of opioid therapy in treating non-cancer pain.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores...announced the expansion of its get-out-the-vote initiative for 2016, with new video ads to encourage pharmacy personnel to volunteer and vote for the candidates of their choice...The new ads are part of the larger NACDS RxIMPACT Votes get-out-the-vote effort, one aspect of NACDS’ suite of grassroots advocacy resources under the NACDS RxIMPACT name. The ads will bear the "hashtag" #PharmacyVoter that will be used in social media to foster a community-wide focus on voter engagement. NACDS also launched PharmacyVoter.org – a website targeted to the pharmacy community to showcase the effort... The first 30-second ad — called "Effective" — debuted...during the launch of NACDS RxIMPACT Day on Capitol Hill, when nearly 400 pharmacy advocates will meet with 90% of the U.S. Congress to discuss key patient care issues.

World Health Organization has suspended the approval of tuberculosis drugs made by India's Svizera Labs, a major supplier to developing countries, following an investigation into standards...The United Nations agency, which acts as a drug watchdog in markets lacking robust local regulation, said on Friday it had suspended all TB products made at Svizera's Mumbai site because manufacturing standards and quality management were unreliable...It also said independent experts should retest batches of medicine already on the market and it might be necessary to recall supplies, depending on the outcome of those tests...The move is a fresh blow for India's pharmaceuticals industry, which supplies cheap generic medicines to countries worldwide but has been tarnished by a series of quality problems in recent years, denting confidence in its products...The WHO plays a critical role in monitoring drug quality in poorer countries through its Prequalification of Medicines Program, which ensures that treatments supplied by U.N. agencies such as UNICEF are of acceptable quality.

Dan Steiber, Editor in Chief for Specialty Pharmacy Times, speaks to True North P.S. President, Ron Lanton. What is limited distribution and its effect on specialty? What are the risks in arrangements between specialty pharmacies and manufacturers? (podcast 44:12 min)

Medicine Shoppe Canada and its parent company, McKesson Canada, on Friday announced a partnership with Quality Foods, a Canadian grocery chain, to drive better patient experience in retail pharmacy...This partnership will see the opening of a new, state-of-the-art pharmacy within a leading grocery store – designed with evolving patient centric care models in mind. Long-time community pharmacist, Larry Johannessen...will operate the new location within the Port Alberni Quality Foods..."As pharmacists, patient and customer care is at the heart of what we do, each and every day", Johannessen said. "I’m excited to partner with Quality Foods to welcome patients into our new facility as we expand access to patient care."

Daniel T. Abazia, PharmD, BCPS, discusses some of the non-pharmacologic treatment options that pharmacists can recommend to patients experiencing opioid-induced constipation.

Erin Albert, Pharm, LLC, CEO and Career Coach (podcast 26:12 min)