Chain Pharmacy

Letters, e-mails, comments, and posts from Drug Topics readers

New Rx, formulations, indications, and generics

Family members and caregivers can be ready to act swiftly if they suspect opioid overdose.

CVS Caremark agreed on Tuesday to pay a $20 million fine to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges that it misled investors in 2009 about financial setbacks and used improper accounting methods for boosting its financial results, according to a SEC statement.

Contributor Steve Ariens takes another run at the question of how to deal with prescriptions for controlled substances.

Publix’s 622 Florida Pharmacy stores are promoting the Lock Your Meds ® campaign throughout April.

When patients present valid prescriptions for controlled medications and pharmacists refuse to dispense, the patients have options. And the ADA is just the beginning.

That’s the charge being made by a government watchdog group and a labor federation, which alleges that the Indiana Board of Pharmacy in 2011 approved Walgreens’ new pharmacy design with the help of the former board president who is employed by the drug chain.

Here's what thousands of your fellow pharmacists were reading this month at Drug Topics

Walgreens plans to close 76 of its drugstores nationwide between April and August 2014, which amounts to less than 2% of its stores, due to store density and non-optimal real estate, Walgreens President and CEO Greg Wasson, said during a conference call on March 25.

Why has one Costco pharmacy in West Sacramento, California consistently bought more hydrocodone than any other pharmacy in that state?

Remember Goose Rawlings’ story in the February issue of Drug Topics, the one about the young pharm school graduate who thought older pharmacists should step aside and leave their jobs to new PharmDs? Boy, did we get mail.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights has launched an investigation into alleged patient- privacy violations at Walgreens, following complaints that chain’s new pharmacy design is putting sensitive patient information at risk, according to the Wall Street Journal.

FDA has approved once-daily topiramate extended-release capsules for initial monotherapy to treat partial-onset or primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures.

Benzodiazepines and opioid medications have dangerous synergistic effects. The use of both has climbed in the last decade, and so has co-prescription.

CVS Caremark Corp. faces as much as $29 million in fines associated with 37,000 prescription painkillers that are missing from four of its California stores, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

As pharmaceutical manufacturers and other life sciences companies cut back their budgets, they are looking for technological solutions.

E-cigarette use recently doubled among teens, and these teens are also smoking conventional cigarettes.

The message for U.S. pharmacies and pharmacy chains: Follow the lead of CVS Caremark and halt pharmacy tobacco sales.

While the big chains compete aggressively for preferred provider status, indies and small chains have a tougher time cutting copays and network prices.

NCPA study finds that community pharmacy med-synch programs can improve patients’ medication adherence and boost the pharmacy's bottom line.

Pharmacists cannot solve the drug abuse problem, but they can refrain from abetting drug-seekers - and give chronic-pain patients the support they deserve.

In the wake of the recent Rite Aid HIV settlement, pharmacists face a new Catch 22.

Don't let the prescriber's hostility stop you from doing the right thing. As the pharmacist, you're the Rx expert.

How much do you identify with your work? Does your role as a pharmacist determine your sense of self? Be careful what you tell yourself. Maybe think again.