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Birth control takes new turn with approval of hormonal ringOrganon's NuvaRing is approved for birth control.
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Managing Chronic Kidney Disease in Patients With DiabetesHow can pharmacists help slow the progression of diabetic kidney disease?
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Viewpoint: Can independents survive Part D?Decades ago, when there were no pharmacy benefit managers and pharmacists were fondly called Doc and sold only medication, pharmacists were respected for the tireless care they gave patients. Over the past 20 years, PBMs working for insurance companies and government agencies have gradually disconnected the care from health, treating pharmacy like a commodity business. Because of PBMs' steady ratcheting down of reimbursements, pharmacists now barely make 1% to 2% profit margins on dispensing prescriptions for private and government plans.
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Anticancer drug treats skin lymphomaThe recently approved Zolinza (vorinostat), the first anticancer drug to be developed by Merck & Co. in 20 years, targets a little-known malignancy that's often mistaken for eczema or psoriasis. Vorinostat, also known as suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), is indicated for the treatment of cutaneous manifestations in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, who have progressive, persistent, or recurrent disease on or following two systemic therapies.
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Comparing the effectiveness of drug treatmentsMost Medicare providers and beneficiaries are unaware of the provision for comparative effectiveness research which is part of the Medicare Modernization Act. Politicians, policymakers, and manufacturers view it as a key initiative for the future of Medicare and beyond.
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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.
