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Viewpoint: Generic profitability: Is it at risk?Wal-Mart offers generics for $4.00. The Deficit Reduction Act cuts billions of dollars from pharmacies' Medicaid reimbursement for generic drugs. There's no doubt about it, generic margins are under siege today.
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IRS FSA rule trips up many retail pharmaciesRetail pharmacy managers are discovering that many third-party administrators do not agree that their inventory information approval systems meet compliance requirements set by the Internal Revenue Service for customers' use of flexible spending accounts.
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Update on Diabetes TherapyDespite evidence that optimal glycemic control can help reduce disease progression and complications, most patients do not achieve recommended treatment goals.
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Viewpoint: Should an RX label require a use-by date or an expiration date?All prescription drugs should have a sell-by date for consistency and patient protection.
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Fried TwinkiesOverweight and obese people constitute a majority in the United States. Universal access to healthcare will mean fat people, too. Thousands of obese people, uninsurable today, will get full coverage, and expensive prescriptions for obesity-related illnesses will clog the tube.
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New options abound to treat resistant blood cancersMany agents are in development to fight resistance to Gleevec (imatinib, Novartis) in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). That was one of the issues highlighted at the recent meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), held in Orlando, Fla. The meeting drew 20,000 attendees seeking news of improved treatments for blood cancer.
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Floodgates openAs a flurry of blockbuster drugs lose their 20-year patent protection, the market is splitting wide open as drugmakers offer competing generic versions.
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Opinion: Is Modern Medicine a Religion?Physicians are our priests, the war on disease has replaced the fight against sin, and pills are our Eucharist.
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Viewpoint: A Pharmacist's tongue-in-cheek guide to patient etiquetteHere's a guide for patients to mind their manners.
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Caution: Heparin errors can have fatal resultsLast September, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) reported an incident that occurred at a Midwestern hospital. A pharmacy technician had stocked an automated dispensing cabinet with heparin 10,000 units/ml vials in a drawer reserved for heparin 10 units/ml. The nurses retrieving the vials did not notice the discrepancy in strength and used the 10,000 units/ml heparin for umbilical line flushes of six premature infants. Three of the babies died of heparin overdose.
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New Pharma knowledge base streamlines CPOEAlthough computerized physician order entry (CPOE) offers the potential to save lives and reduce medical costs, it hasn't yet garnered widespread acceptance. According to the results of a questionnaire administered in a study by Harvey Murff, M.D., of Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston and Joseph Kannry, M.D., of Mount Sinai-NYU Health Systems in New York, published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, one of the biggest obstacles to acceptance is the difficulty of executing tasks "in a straightforward manner." Physicians find it takes longer to type prescriptions into the system than it does to write prescriptions on a pad in the traditional way.
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Pay dirt: Pharmacist salaries are still climbing, but at a slower rate. Our exclusive survey shows who gets top dollarPharmacist salaries are still climbing, but at a slower rate. Our exclusive survey shows who gets top dollar.
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Hospital pharmacies to go high-tech and decentralizedHospitals and other healthcare facilities of the future will look more like hotels or office buildings and less like the institutional and often inconveniently designed buildings that many think of today, said Greg Lasker, an assistant professor of building construction management at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. According to Lasker, Clarion North Medical Center in Carmel, Ind., is a precursor of what hospitals of the future will look like.
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Drug Topics to expand in the digital worldDrug Topics announces a new publication frequency and adds an expert in specialty pharmacy to its board.
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What the FDA Wants Pharmacists to Know About Generic DrugsDrug Topics recently spoke with the FDA about the role pharmacists can play in patient education.
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R.Ph.s can facilitate switch to HFA inhalersAs part of the 1987 international Montreal Protocol treaty to reduce/eliminate substances depleting the ozone layer, CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) propellants in albuterol metered-dose inhalers (MDIs) are gradually being replaced by HFAs (hydrofluoro-alkanes). The transition need not be complete until Dec. 31, 2008, when albuterol CFC-MDIs must be discontinued as mandated by the Food & Drug Administration. But the change is well under way. As Patty Johnson, spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, noted, "We [GSK] already transitioned to Ventolin HFA MDI in early 2006."
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Telepharmacy Business Model Allows Satellite Operation and Increased Patient ConvenienceAdoption of video conferencing technologies improve dispersal and communication to patients and healthcare professionals alike.
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Lawmakers seek standard for generic biologicsAfter years of false starts, stalls, and missteps, Congress may soon be ready to tackle the thorny question of how to regulate generic biologic pharmaceuticals, lawmakers noted at the Generic Pharmaceutical Association's 2006 Annual Policy Conference held recently in Washington, D.C.
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FDA Finalizes Guidance on Interchangeability for BiologicsBiosimilar guidance provides “clarity” for drug developers.
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Eye on ethics: Whose prescription is it anyway?Pharmacists must observe HIPAA regulations and also have a clear duty to warn patients.
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New data support combo therapy at outset of hypertension treatmentNew studies support the use of fixed dose antihypertensive combination therapy at the outset of hypertension treatment.
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How long is the wait?Okay, pharmacists. All together now. What's the one question you hear all day long?
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Adherence program improves health of elderlyPharmacists at one of the nation's largest military medical centers found that elderly patients are likelier to comply with drug regimens following a program of patient education, pharmacy counseling, and specially packaged drug blisterpacks. Jeannie Lee, Pharm.D., and Karen Grace, Pharm.D., clinical pharmacists at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, led the research. "The Federal Study of Adherence to Medications in the Elderly" (FAME) was published in the Dec. 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Clinical advancements in treating breast cancerBreast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women, second only to lung cancer, and the most common malignancy diagnosed in women. The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates approximately 215,990 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. It is estimated that 40,110 women will die from breast cancer in the United States this year alone.
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FDA Approves New COPD Maintenance TreatmentDUAKLIR PRESSAIR (aclidinium bromide and formoterol fumarate) provides LAMA/LABA therapy.
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Are transdermal patches the way of the future?This past April, methylphenidate (Daytrana, Shire) was approved as a transdermal drug delivery system (TD-DDS) for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And many more patches are on the horizon. Novartis is seeking Food & Drug Administration approval for its rivastigmine (Exelon) patch to aid in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers in the United Kingdom are working on a TD-DDS to deliver synthetic cannabinoids for use as antiemetics and appetite stimulants in patients with AIDS and cancer.
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Clinical Q & A: What's the latest in vaccine therapyThe focus of medicine lies not only in searching for viable treatments and cures for existing ailments but also in the prevention of disease. Vaccination induces immunity after an antigen is introduced to the body. This antigen usually consists of a live attenuated organism, an inactivated organism, a toxoid, or parts of an organism (acellular and subunit). The antigen is incapable of resulting in the full-blown manifestation of the disease, but it is potent enough to generate the formation of antibodies to protect against future illness. Traditionally, vaccination has been used to combat the spread of infectious diseases, such as cholera, rabies, polio, measles, and hepatitis. And this is still the case.
