Despite regulations in other countries around the world, the United States still does not have any system in place for tracking the exposure rates of employees who handle chemotherapy drugs. The 1992 death from cancer of a nurse in British Columbia led to large scale changes in the handling chemotherapy drugs there. The nurse, Sally […]
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recently voted to keep the GlaxoSmithKline drug Avandia on the market. The diabetes medication has come under fire recently for allegations that it can increase the risk of heart attack for users. The panel first voted 21-4 that Avandia is more likely to cause heart attack than its […]
Current laws in North Dakota require that pharmacists own at least 51% of the operating pharmacy. The impact of the law has been the exclusion of large pharmacy chains in the state. The only chain pharmacy in the state, CVS, has six locations and was grandfathered into the current law. An initiative scheduled to hit […]
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) has rallied behind the “Medication Therapy Management (MTM) Expanded Benefits Act of 2010”. Introduced by Senators Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Al Franken (D-MN), the bill seeks to expand MTM to specific Medicare patients. Those with chronic illnesses would be eligible for a medication review and consultations with a pharmacist to […]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to address the Medicare Part D coverage gap for those receiving benefits for prescription drugs. The current plan includes a coverage gap, or “donut hole”, that suspends drug benefits when patients fall within certain limits of the plan. Early this year President Obama signed the […]
A report by Medco Health Solutions, Inc. found that prescription drug use by children increased more than adult drug use last year. The report cited a 5 percent increase among kids in comparison to an overall rise of 1.3 percent. The highest jump was in anti-viral drugs use attributed to cases of the swine flu. […]
Gold Standard/Elsevier has announced that it will continue to publish drug price databases that include the average wholesale price (AWP) in addition to the calculated price types that include various markup percentages. The announcement comes as several other drug price databases have announced their intention to withdraw the AWP from their program price lists.
The Food and Drug Administration is responding to 121 known cases of consumers drinking Benadryl Extra Strength Itch Stopping Gel by asking consumers to pay close attention to the warnings not to ingest the topical gel. The 121 cases have been recorded between 2001 and 2009 and in most cases the bottle of topical gel […]
