Massachusetts bashes R.Ph.s on Rx fee
February 3rd 2003The Massachusetts attorney general blasted pharmcies for passing a new $1.30 per Rx tax onto consumers. The tax was imposed to raise $36 million for the state Medicaid program but the law doesn't spell out whether pharmacies can charge consumers to the levy.
First human MAb offers RA patients effective option
January 20th 2003Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) now have a first-of-its-kind therapeutic option that is safe, convenient, and effective. The FDA recently approved adalimumab (Humira, Abbott Laboratories) for reducing the signs and symptoms and inhibiting the progression of structural damage in adult patients with moderately to severely active RA who have had an inadequate response to one or more disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The approval of adalimumab comes just nine months after regulatory submission. Adalimumab will be available in pharmacies by mid-January.
There's no simple route to compliance, study finds
January 20th 2003Keeping patients on long term therapy requires multifaceted interventions but even complex approaches don't lead to big improvements in adherence or improved outcomes, according to researchers from the McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences in Ontario.
New osteoporosis drug is first to form bone
January 6th 2003The FDA recently approved teriparatide (rDNA origin) injection [Forteo, Eli Lilly], a recombinant form of human parathyroid hormone, for the treatment of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis who are at increased risk for fracture. Teriparatide is also indicated to increase bone mass in men with primary or hypogonadal osteoporosis who are at high risk for fracture.
Pharmacy leaders offer new practice paradigm--PCT
December 16th 2002To comply with state practice acts and OBRA '90, pharmacacy practice must include clincial technology, such as devices and instruments, not just drugs, according to a group of leading scientists, educators, and attorneys who have issued a manifesto.