
Letters, e-mails, Facebook posts, and web comments from Drug Topics readers.
Remember President Eisenhower’s coinage “the military-industrial complex”? Here’s a contemporary analogue, spotlighted in a passionate argument by Drug Topics reader Robert L. Mabee, RPh, JD, MBA.
Hospital pharmacy directors throughout Texas are being repeatedly targeted by grey market drug vendors, according to a new study led by a faculty member at the University of Texas.
CareFusion has introduced new technologies designed to improve the safety, efficiency, and cost of intravenous medications as well as medication management.
The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention recently joined a number of other global health organizations in the Fight the Fakes campaign to combat the growing problem of counterfeit and substandard medications.
BJC Healthcare this week received the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ 2013 Excellence in Medication Use Safety award.
If your inner entrepreneur is hollering to get out, maybe you should go for it.
Asking whether hydrocodone should be rescheduled is only the beginning.
In cancer patients with concurrent type 2 diabetes, metformin alone or in combination with other regimens was associated with 34% reduction in overall death risk and 38% reduction in cancer-specific death risk, according to a study in the December issue of The Oncologist.
Walgreens recently opened what is believed to be the nation’s first zero energy retail store. The Evanston, Ill., store uses approximately 850 solar panels and 2 wind turbines, and is anticipated to produce more energy than it consumes.
A new government report found evidence of Veterans Affairs doctors at one California hospital renewing highly addictive narcotic painkillers for patients they had never seen.
FDA has approved sofosbuvir (Sovaldi, Gilead) to treat chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. According to FDA, Sovaldi is the first drug that has demonstrated safety and efficacy to treat certain types of HCV infection without the need for co-administration of interferon.
Do you have the qualities to become an exceptional pharmacy leader? Captain Mark E. Brouker, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, who recently retired from the U.S. Navy's Medical Service Corps after 30 years of service, outlined 3 top leadership qualities during his keynote speech at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting in Orlando.
Cardinal Health has introduced a new service that enables hospital outpatient pharmacies to have prescriptions filled at offsite locations.
A specific type of diabetes drug can decrease the risk of cancer in female patients with type 2 diabetes up to 32%, according to a study published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. People with type 2 diabetes have a higher rate of cancer development and recurrence compared to the general population.
Joshua Benner, president and CEO of Rx Ante, discusses how pharmacies can use analytics to determine which patients are more likely to not take medicines as prescribed, then focus pharmacy efforts on those patients.
Caremark LLC, a division of CVS Caremark, has agreed to pay $4.25 million to five states to settle allegations that it defrauded Medicaid programs by billing them for prescription costs paid by private insurers.
FDA has approved simeprevir (Olysio, Janssen Therapeutics) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection as part of an antiviral treatment regimen in combination with pegylated interferon and ribavirin in genotype 1 infected adults with compensated liver disease, including cirrhosis.
Teamwork between pharmacists and doctors benefits patients, and collaborative practice agreements will help make that teamwork possible.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists will be honoring its recipients of the 2013 ASHP Best Practices Award in Health-System Pharmacy during a reception at the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition.
During its annual foundation dinner in New York City this week, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation raised more than $1.8 million to support research, education, and medication adherence initiatives.
Helena Foulkes, a veteran with more than two decades of experience with CVS Caremark, will become president of the retail chain’s pharmacy business effective Jan. 1.
Diabetes patients who received heart medications via mail-order were less likely to visit emergency rooms than those who received their prescriptions in person, according to a study in the American Journal of Managed Care.
Patients who quit taking their statins are frequently on 3-4 other meds as well, and drug interactions are amplifying their experience of muscle pain.
Medication adherence can be greatly improved when pharmacists meet with patients and synchronize their meds.
Last week, President Obama signed the Drug Quality and Security Act into law, providing FDA with the authority and responsibility to regulate “outsourcing facilities,” compounders that make large volumes of compounded drugs without individual prescriptions. The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) supported and helped with the drafting of the legislation.
Reevaluation of RECORD trial data fails to uncover elevated cardiovascular risk.
FDA has requested label and packaging changes for certain over-the-counter topical antiseptic products to decrease the risk of infections from these products, which in rare cases have resulted in deaths.
FDA is warning healthcare professionals of the rare but serious risk of heart attack and death with use of cardiac nuclear stress test agents regadenoson (Lexiscan) and adenosine (Adenoscan).
Pregnant women exposed to environmental phthalates are at an elevated risk of preterm delivery, according to a recent study in JAMA Pediatrics.