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Bartell Drugs will unveil the largest of its 64 locations at Bellevue Village (Bellevue, WA)…with the completion of a major 5,500-square-foot expansion and remodel…In keeping with Bartell Drugs' “hyper-local” focus, the store includes an array of new features and product areas spotlighting local partners, including the “Bellevue Fountain” offering in-store barista services with fresh-brewed coffee and espresso drinks from Seattle’s Caffe Vita and scooped servings of Bartell Drugs’ own Emerald & Spruce premium ice cream in partnership with local Snoqualmie Ice Cream. And then there's the Bellevue introduction of Bartells’ “Growler Station” with nine local craft beers on tap for take-home.

AstraZeneca and Cephalon — have agreed to pay a total of $54 million to federal and state governments to settle allegations that they shortchanged Medicaid programs on rebates for drugs… The allegations involve rebates owed to Medicare which are negotiated with pharmaceutical companies, which are often touted as a main reason that the cost of any drug is actually less than the published price…in a lawsuit against the two drug companies claiming that they violated so-called “false claims acts” by manipulating how they reported the prices of drugs in order to decrease rebates owed to state Medicaid programs… lawsuit claimed that AstraZeneca and Cephalon falsely treated certain fees paid to wholesalers as “discounts,” improperly lowering the average prices reported and they amount they paid…

This is the first large-scale study to reveal how doctors' notes affect patients when it comes to taking their prescriptions…the OpenNotes initiative, first conceived at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston…The program directly connects patients to their physician's notes through an online portal…Encouraging patients to utilize a Web portal to view their doctors' notes is a cost-effective and efficient way to influence medication-taking behavior…reminding them to read them before visiting their doctor is key to reinforcing the doctors' rationale for prescribing specific medications and dosage…increasing patient access to fully transparent doctors' notes should be on the radar screen of all healthcare providers…

Drug was set to be dumped from UK’s list of approved medicines before deal was reached with pharmaceutical firm Roche...An expensive drug that could prolong the lives of women with advanced breast cancer by at least six months will remain on the list of medicines available on the NHS (National Health System) after the manufacturer agreed to lower the price…Roche’s Kadcyla was one of a number of drugs set to be dumped from the Cancer Drugs Fund list of medicines that the government pays for because the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence does not consider them to be cost-effective…In the case of Kadcyla, cost was the only issue. Nice and NHS England accept that the drug works well and can extend women’s lives significantly without severe side-effects. But Roche launched the drug at a reported £90,000 ($138,000) per patient per year, which is nearly double the limit for Nice approval…

Pfizer is looking to help more patients afford medication, announcing… that it would be expanding eligibility for its RxPathways program, which offers services to help patients access medication. The change makes patients who earn up to four times the federal poverty level based on family size (up to $97,000 for a family of four) eligible for some of the 40 medicines offered for free by the program…“We have listened to patients and acted quickly to significantly expand the eligibility of our patient assistance programs. While patient assistance is not a permanent solution, it is a necessary step for helping to solve some of the high co-pay issues that some patients face,”…

...controversial HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine does not cause chronic pain or dizziness, despite reports from patients’ families complaining of those side effects, European regulators said…after an extensive review…European Medicine Agency began its review in July after families complained that girls who were vaccinated suffered complex regional pain syndrome…a chronic pain that affects limbs. Other families said the vaccines caused postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome…which causes dizziness and fainting…“The available evidence does not support a link” between the vaccines and the syndromes…“There is no reason to change the way the vaccines are used.”

DEA…today announced results from the 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment, which found that drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury (and) death in the United States, ahead of deaths from motor vehicle accidents and firearms. In 2013, more than 46,000 people in the United States died from a drug overdose and more than half of those were caused by prescription painkillers and heroin…Since 2002, prescription drug deaths have outpaced those of cocaine and heroin combined. Abuse of controlled prescription drugs is higher than that of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, MDMA, and PCP combined… Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 25 to 40 times more potent than heroin, has caused more than 700 deaths in the U.S. between late 2013 and early 2015. Fentanyl is sometimes added to heroin batches, or sold by itself as heroin, unknown to the user...

Caremark, a division of CVS Health, won an incentive package Tuesday from Orange County (FL) to bring a pharmaceutical operation here next year that could create as many as 500 jobs…County commissioners approved the company's request in a 6-1 vote…Caremark plans to establish a support operation here for its pharmacies in the southeastern U.S…The jobs, including 100 pharmacists and 350 pharmacy techs, will pay an average annual salary of about $49,000, qualifying it for a "high-wage jobs" tax break…The Caremark proposal also will boost the county's tax roll by $18.7 million…Caremark would add 275 jobs by the end of next year and another 225 jobs in 2017…The company would be in line for $1.5 million in tax refunds from the state, or about $3,000 per job. The county would kick in up to $300,000.

Work to begin in early 2016…Walgreens is poised to roll out Epic EHRs (Care Everywhere) in its more than 400 healthcare clinics across the country…The Epic platform will replace Walgreens' own proprietary EHR…The goal…is to...enable more seamless communication with health systems and local providers, and gives us enhanced capabilities to deliver better health outcomes through greater care coordination and interoperability…our clinics play an increasingly important role in healthcare, supporting the healthcare system, provider practices and patients' medical homes, care coordination can be critical. This will benefit our patients, clinic providers and partners, and serves as an instrumental part of our strategic growth plan…

...interview with Eric Sredzinski, Pharm.D., about improving medication adherence in HIV patients through mobile health technologies... (podcast 19:29)