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With the settlement of the class-action lawsuit brought against First DataBank and McKesson by third-party payors accusing the companies of conspiring to inflate average wholesale prices (AWP) of hundreds of drugs, AWP values will roll back from 1.25 to 1.20 times the drugs' wholesale acquisition cost (WAC).

The best technique for counseling patients is a combination of Show & Tell and the Indian Health Services questions. If pharmacists could quickly decide which prescriptions needed extended counseling, they could employ this approach when it is most necessary. Now there's an algorithm for that.

Caused by herpes simplex virus type 1, cold sores, also known as fever blisters, are highly contagious and are present throughout the U.S. population in epidemic proportions. Because the stress of the new school year weakens the body's defenses and triggers cold-sore episodes, September may be called the start of the cold sore "season."

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy is now one step closer to making its recommendation to the state?s legislature regarding the use of medical marijuana in the state.

MDA and Walgreens are teaming up to offer flu shots at 7,000 locations.

Drug Topics Advisory Board member Phil Burgess has been appointed to the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Health Information Technology Advisory Panel.

The West Virginia Attorney General's Office has filed a lawsuit alleging that CVS Pharmacy, Kmart, Kroger, Walgreen Pharmacy, and Target violated a state law designed to promote use of generic equivalents for brand-name prescription drugs, according to media reports in the state.

Want to see fear on the face of a pharmacist? Ask for a quick dosage conversion for a 75-year-old woman with breast cancer who has become too weak to swallow MS Contin tablets and needs an oral liquid morphine. Keep reading to learn more about making conversions easier.

A study released by CVS Caremark found that more than 50 percent of patients under the age of 45 who are prescribed a medication to treat high cholesterol are not optimally adherent to their therapy.

In what it describes as an effort to stabilize and possibly decrease costs, a significant portion of which are associated with enforcement of laws and regulations, the Virginia Board of Pharmacy is testing new processes to help increase the efficiency of certain noncompliance issues.

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy will convene a two-day task force Oct. 28 and October 29 to research various prescription-drug monitoring programs and recommend standards or model rules.

Consumer shopping habits have changed in the new economy and some of those habits will have an impact on purchases of prescriptions and OTC healthcare products for the next few years.

GlaxoSmithKline has announced that two lots of Advair Diskus medication were stolen earlier this month from the company's distribution facility near Richmond, Virginia.

On Aug. 26 the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to the public that stolen vials of the long-acting insulin Levemir still may be on the market.

The program created to provide Medicare recipients with prescription drug benefits exceeded expectations during its first two years. Keep reading to learn the details.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) announced recently that Duncan Mac Naughton, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing for SUPERVALU, has ben elected to the NACDS board of directors.

B. Braun Medical Inc. announced recently that it was named Surgery Center Market Supplier of the Year by McKesson's medical-surgical business unit. B. Braun received the award at McKesson's 2009 national sales meeting in Nashville, Tenn.

Keep reading to learn about some legal roadblocks in the way of pharmacy technicians.

The Pharmacists Society of the State of New York is fighting mad over the state's plan to contract with mail-order pharmacies to deliver high-cost medications to Medicaid customers.

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) has launched its Student Ambassador Program, designed to connect pharmacy students with owners of community pharmacies.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Saphris tablets to treat adults with schizophrenia, and bipolar I disorder in adults.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration published two rules recently to help clarify how very ill patients can obtain access to investigational drugs and biologics when they are not eligible to participate in a clinical trial and have no other satisfactory treatment options.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association are moving ahead with their lawsuit against Delaware's changes to Medicaid reimbursement rates, even after Walgreen Co. said it no longer supports the suit.

A Miami resident has been convicted of both conspiring to divert human growth hormones and causing the diversion of these human growth hormones in interstate commerce.

Cardinal Health has agreed to acquire the assets of privately held Biotech, an operator of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) cyclotrons and nuclear pharmacies in the southwestern United States.

The University of Utah College of Pharmacy, joined by friends, supporters, members of The ALSAM Foundation, and Mr. and Mrs. L.S. Skaggs, broke ground on a $69-million research facility to be known as the L.S. Skaggs Pharmacy Institute.

In Illinois, the Jewel-Osco grocery-pharmacy chain has taken on pharmacy consulting and dispensing services for Passages Hospice.

Pharmacists speak out about new pharmacy schools, professional standards, and big-box manners.

A new study by Prescription Solutions and UnitedHealth Group says that Americans have been slow to embrace the use of generic drugs.

Tomorrow's pharmacists and pharmacies will need to find ways to increase profit margins by reducing the cost of prescribing, embracing technology, and focusing more on patient counseling, immunizations, education, and other offshoots of their clinical expertise.