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European health regulators…conditionally approved Amgen Inc's rare blood cancer drug, Blincyto (blinatumomab), which is one of the world's most expensive cancer treatments…Food and Drug Administration in December approved Blincyto for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which has few treatment options once a patient has relapsed…Blincyto is a so-called bispecific antibody, an emerging class of drugs that could prove more potent than conventional antibodies,…

Walgreen Co.’s persisting failure to remove expired sales tags from its shelves deceives customers and violates a 2014 settlement that sought to resolve the matter in Missouri, the state’s attorney general argued…in asking a state court to punish the pharmacy chain…Attorney General Chris Koster filed court documents asking a judge to hold the nation’s largest pharmacy retailer in contempt of the settlement and issue steeper fines, including up to $5,000 for each expired tag. Koster said that since July, undercover investigators have found a total of more than 1,300 shelf tags displaying sales prices that had expired...

In an extensive interview with Bloomberg BNA, IACP's (International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists)David G. Miller, RPh, Executive Vice President & CEO, discusses concerns over the Drug Quality & Security Act (DQSA), emphasizing the need for clarification over which regulatory authority is responsible for the oversight of compounding pharmacy.

At least three reviewers recommended against Addyi (flibanserin) approval..They warned about possible side effects and expressed concern that “the marginal clinical benefits do not outweigh the serious risks,” according to a memo posted online that summarized the analysis within the U.S. regulatory agency… One reviewer particularly wanted more study of the interaction between Addyi and alcohol because the tests were conducted almost exclusively with men… FDA had rejected the drug,…in 2010 and 2013 before approving it in August...

Apps are all the rage in healthcare and pretty much everywhere else. Despite so much buzz about consumers using mobile healthcare apps, however, the options proving useful are few and far between…With some 165,000 health-related apps available, in fact, a mere 36 comprise nearly 50 percent of downloads… Two key data points illustrate how almost all of the apps fall short: Just 10 percent can connect to a device or sensor while a mere 2 percent sync into providers' systems,...that functionality could greatly improve both accuracy and convenience of data collection.

Gilead Sciences' decision to slap Sovaldi,…with an $84,000 price tag was widely considered a turning point for payers and pharmacy benefit managers…the months leading up to the approvals this summer…negotiations were already under way between those drugmakers and Express Scripts,…PBMs are becoming increasingly savvy and hard-nosed about which drugs they will cover and what they are willing to pay for them… PBMs want to position [themselves] so they are advocating on behalf of their customers. Their customers are worried...

Telehealth represents a burgeoning,…opportunity for pharmacy operators, one that has the potential to not only drive traffic into a store, but also to drive new customers into that store…Pharmacy represents a…touchpoint for telehealth operators...making pharmacies that provide access to telehealth services a convenient and less-expensive option for those consumers who are assuming a greater portion of their individual healthcare costs…also an opportunity to improve outcomes through telehealth/retail pharmacy partnerships…many…doctor associations,…support telehealth models,..making retail pharmacy operators fielding in-store telehealth services attractive care partners for health systems.

Almost every American will experience an error in diagnosis at some point in life. But the problem has taken a back seat to other patient safety concerns,…The report from a blue-ribbon panel of the Institute of Medicine called for widespread changes in health care to improve diagnoses…Errors in diagnosis — defined as inaccuracies or delays — account for an estimated 10 percent of patient deaths, hundreds of thousands of adverse events in hospitals each year and are a leading cause of paid medical malpractice claims...

September 26th,..local and federal agencies will once again partner together to sponsor the Prescription Drug Round Up event in Washoe County. Since the first event in the fall of 2009, the Round Ups in Washoe County have collected nearly 1.5 million prescription pills. More than 210,000 of those pills were in categories that are commonly diverted and abused, such as painkillers, depressants and stimulants.

Round Up Locations September 26th 10:00am – 2:00pm:

• Raleys - 930 Tahoe Blvd, Incline Village
• Raleys - 18144 Wedge Parkway, Reno
• Walgreens - 10370 N. McCarran Blvd, Reno
• Save Mart– 4995 Kietzke Lane, Reno
• CVS - 680 N. McCarran Blvd, Sparks
• Save Mart- 9750 Pyramid Hwy, Sparks

The drug drop boxes are available during regular business hours at the following locations:

• Reno Police Department – 455 E. 2nd Street, Reno
• Sparks Police Department – 1701 East Prater Way, Sparks
• Washoe County Sheriff’s Office – 911 Parr Blvd., Reno

Medicare donut hole forces participants to face an expensive gap in coverage in their Part D prescription drug plans… the costs of prescription drugs covered by a plan get split up in various ways, depending on your total prescription costs for a given year… donut hole simply forced participants to pay these additional drug costs entirely on their own, causing huge financial stress… Affordable Care Act,…started to fill in the donut hole… Over time,..discounts will gradually rise…by 2020, participants will pay only 25% of the net cost of brand-name and generic prescription drugs.