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Officials and activists from the Service Employees International Union and the United Food & Commercial Workers recently demonstrated their opposition to Rite Aid's pending acquisition of the Eckerd and Brooks drugstores.

One of the site?s features is a diabetes forum that gives the public a venue to communicate their problems, seek assistance, and help others.

Duane Reade Holdings and Consumer Health Services (CHS), a manager of on-site physician-centric consumer healthcare, have announced a formal affiliation agreement with Continuum Health Partners, one of the major hospital and healthcare providers in the New York City area.

Duane Reade and HealthTrans have announced that Duane Reade?s Performance Script Network has been awarded a two-year contract to provide prescription drug benefit services to the members of a retail, wholesale, and department store union.

Entecavir (Baraclude, Bristol-Myers Squibb) should not be used in patients coinfected by HIV and hepatitis B virus (HBV) who are not also receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), according to an FDA-issued warning to healthcare professionals.

Following the death of a 13-day-old infant, the FDA has issued a public health advisory alerting mothers of the risk of taking codeine while breastfeeding.

The final language includes provisions requiring pedigree outside the normal distribution channel, which includes drop shipments; a surety bond; criminal background checks and continuing training for designated representatives; penalties and discipline language; and a directive requiring the board to establish—prior to July 1, 2009—an implementation date for electronic pedigree.

The advisers recommended that the agency approve proposed changes to iPLEDGE, a computer-based distribution program and pregnancy registry that provides a closed-loop system for prescribing, dispensing, and distributing isotretinoin, a drug that can cause birth defects, miscarriages, and premature births, according to the FDA.

The legislation would grant the agency authority to crack down on tobacco marketing and sales to kids; require that tobacco companies disclose the contents of tobacco products and reduce or remove harmful ingredients; stop tobacco companies from misleading the public about the health risk of their products; and require larger, more effective health warnings on tobacco products.

Because so many questions remain about what medication therapy management claims processing should look like, NCPDP held a meeting last month to consider whether it should set up a work group to address these issues.

TRICARE has the highest-rated health insurance plan for the fifth consecutive year, according to a survey of more than 33,500 U.S. consumers. Kaiser Permanente regained its top-HMO rating in this year's WilsonRx Health Insurance Satisfaction Survey.