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A grand jury has indicted CEO Elizabeth Holmes and...Sunny Balwani for alleged fraud at Theranos, the disgraced Silicon Valley company that once promised to revolutionize blood testing in a pitch that was too good to be true...The criminal charges filed by federal prosecutors allege that Holmes and Balwani bilked investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars while also defrauding doctors and patients through years of lies that put thousands of people in personal danger...(they) are charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud in the indictment, which was handed down on Thursday and unsealed on Friday. They now each face a maximum of 20 years in prison and up to $2.7 million in fines, a figure that doesn’t include any cash the government might demand as restitution for the alleged fraud...Holmes and Balwani lied brazenly about their technology’s capabilities — even though they knew it was inaccurate, unreliable, slow, and limited in terms of the tests it could perform...They marketed their blood test sold in Walgreens stores to consumers in Arizona and California, the indictment says, even though they knew it could not consistently report accurate levels of calcium, chloride, and potassium, among other medical tests. They told investors that they were using their own proprietary machines to test patients’ blood, when in fact they were using commercially available analyzers they’d purchased...

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.

Kelly Davio, host, the Pharmacy Times News Network's Pharmacy Week in Review.

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Pharmacy owners who ask themselves the following 5 questions on a weekly basis will find that this exercise helps them create the pharmacies that they want, ones that matter in their communities and ones that help create lifestyles that benefit their families.

1. Is what got me where I am today going to get me where I want to go tomorrow?
2. Have I differentiated myself in the marketplace?
3. Am I organizing my time, effort, and other resources around winning strategies and great marketing to build the future I want, or am I still clinging to the status quo, which is based on yesterday’s breadwinners and today’s mistakes?
4. Am I focusing each hour of every single working day on those few activities that contribute the most to increasing cash flow and profits?
5. What do potential patients value most that they are not finding from me and are seeking from my competitors?

With the recent deaths of Spade and Bourdain, health care professionals are also concerned about suicide contagion, a phenomenon in which high-profile suicides influence patients to attempt or committ suicide themselves...pharmacists can play a key role in preventing suicide...pharmacists are ideally situated to assist those in need because of their frequent interactions with patients and access to medical records...However, pharmacists are often unprepared to properly respond to signs of suicide risk, as very few pharmacy schools incorporate suicide prevention courses into their curricula...here are 5 ways pharmacists can help patients who are contemplating suicide...

1. Identify at-risk patients.
2. Monitor medication use and mental health.
3. Collaborate with the health care team.
4. Refer to suicide prevention resources.
5. Be encouraging and empathetic.

The...Food and Drug Administration...sent warning letters to nine online networks operating a total of 53 websites to stop illegally marketing unapproved versions of opioid medications...The regulator said... it is taking additional steps with these warning letters by going right to the source of the illegal supply of unapproved and misbranded versions of opioid drugs, including tramadol and oxycodone...The internet is virtually awash in illegal narcotics...Drug dealers and rogue website operators are using the internet to fuel the opioid crisis...The regulator has requested responses from the nine companies within 10 working days, or they may be subject to product seizure or injunction.

Kelly Davio, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Kelly Davio, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

A recently adopted tactic by...health plans to limit the financial assistance drugmakers provide directly to consumers for prescription medicines is taking a toll on drug prices, according to a new analysis...Real...drug prices, including discounts and rebates, fell 5.6 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared to a 1.7 percent drop in the same period a year ago, according to...research analyst Richard Evans...He attributed most of the decline to ‘copay accumulator’ programs introduced by pharmacy benefits managers...drugmakers have increasingly offered so-called ‘copay assistance’ cards, similar to a debit card, that consumers can use at the pharmacy counter to reduce their out-of-pocket costs...these payments insulate consumers from the real costs of their drugs and can push them toward more expensive medications when a cheaper option is available...Beginning in January, Express and other pharmacy benefits managers introduced a new ‘copay accumulator’ approach, refusing to allow copay assistance payments to contribute toward a patient’s deductible before insurance kicks in...That has forced drugmakers to either keep paying out-of-pocket costs for a consumer, or risk them ditching a medicine because they can no longer pay for it....