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OIG has found that the FDA's National Drug Code Directory, which lists prescription drugs by their NDC number, is neither complete nor accurate. More than 9,000 products are missing, and more than 34,000 are either listed in error or no longer on the market.

The FDA has ordered a refund program be established, following a federal district court ruling that Lane Labs USA marketed three products as treatments for cancer, HIV, and skin cancer without FDA approval. Consumers who purchased BeneFin, MGN-3, and SkinAnswer between Sept. 22, 1999, and July 12, 2004, are eligible for a partial refund of the purchase price and any shipping and handling costs.

The exhibit floor at the ASHP summer meeting in Orlando was sizzling with the latest wares on display for hospital pharmacy in categories ranging from automation solutions to dispensing equipment, computer hardware and software, drug administration devices, packaging equipment, and pharmacy management services.

Pharmacists are still divided over whether the mandate to drop the B.S. degree was a bad call

In August 2005, Woodland Heights Medical Center (Lufkin, Texas) pharmacy technician Fred Poage, CPhT, was taking a computer programming course while pursuing a mathematics degree at nearby Stephen F. Austin State University. Staff pharmacist Eddie Purifoy, R.Ph., challenged Poage to put the course to good use. "Why don't you do something really useful-tackle this Xigris problem?"

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has joined a growing list of payers that are giving hospital patients and other medical consumers detailed price and quality information. In June, CMS posted its negotiated rates for 30 common hospital procedures at www.cms.hhs.gov/healthcareconinit/01_overview.asp. Other hospital data are at www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov.

The formula being used by Medicare to determine the reimbursement rates for intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) is creating serious problems for patients, physicians, hospitals, and pharmacists. The formulas used were changed for physicians' offices and homecare settings in 2005 and for hospital-based settings at the beginning of 2006. Reimbursement rates for almost all approved IVIG products are now below the costs of the products and this, combined with periodic supply shortages, has had patients and hospitals scrambling.

Hospitals with large indigent patient populations have a new financial ally: the Medicare Part D outpatient pharmacy benefit.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently issued updated evidence-based practice guidelines for the use of antiemetics in patients who are receiving chemotherapy or radiation. Chemotherapy-induced emesis can negatively affect a patient's quality of life and may have an impact on compliance with future treatments. Approximately 70% to 80% of all cancer patients receiving chemotherapy experience emesis.

Tenfold drug administration errors are common and pernicious in healthcare systems, but they could be almost entirely eliminated. They occur when a decimal placement is written incorrectly or misread. Decimal errors can result in a 10-fold, 100-fold, or even 1,000-fold overdose or underdose. But experts say providers rarely need to use decimals, and, when they are necessary, many steps can be taken to limit errors.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently released Preventing Medication Errors, a 544-page report that is the fourth in its Quality Chasm series. The authors concluded that medication errors harm at least 1.5 million people per year in the United States. In addition, the cost of treating drug-related injuries that occur in hospitals alone conservatively amounts to $3.5 billion per year, according to the Committee on Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors, which wrote the report. The report was funded by the Department of Health & Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Pharmacist Services Technical Advisory Coalition, founded in 2002 to improve the coding infrastructure required for billing of pharmacist services, has successfully gained revisions in the Health Care Provider Taxonomy Code List for pharmacy service providers and pharmacy suppliers. Among the new categories are geriatric, oncology, and compounding pharmacy. Changes in definitions for existing pharmacist categories include nuclear, nutrition support, pharmacotherapy, and psychiatric. The code review was performed in preparation for implementation of a National Provider Identifier (NPI), as mandated by HIPAA. According to PSTAC, providers may have one or more taxonomy codes, depending on their areas of specialization, and providers that have already completed the NPI application may need to update the code(s) in their NPI record. The new changes were announced in July by the National Uniform Claims Committee and will go into effect on Oct. 1. For a complete list of taxonomy codes, visit..

RxUSA Wholesale has filed a $1.8 billion lawsuit against 16 drug manufacturers, five drug wholesalers, and the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA). The New York-based distributor charged a conspiracy to boycott secondary wholesalers, eliminate competition, and maintain artificially high prices.

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to have customers fly in from another state to buy products from your pharmacy and to seek your advice, just ask Abby Fazio, R.Ph. Fazio, who co-owns New London Pharmacy with her husband, has been catering to customers from out of state as well as to neighborhood folks in New York City's trendy Chelsea neighborhood since 1995.

Supermarket pharmacies remained stable last year in the face of several challenges, according to the latest findings of the Food Marketing Institute's "2006 Supermarket Pharmacy Trends Survey." Here are some of the highlights of the FMI survey

Washington State pharmacists are wondering if they are expected to be the penmanship police since a new law decrees that prescriptions in cursive handwriting are no longer considered to be legible.

I will always make time for company reps whose message is short and snappy.

Make no mistake about it. Community pharmacies are in peril, thanks largely to low and slow reimbursement from Medicare Part D and aggressive efforts by pharmacy benefit managers to pressure beneficiaries to switch to mail order. What are pharmacy associations doing to rescue pharmacies from the plight they are in?

Reams of articles have been written on when drug treatments should be initiated, but far less literature is available on when they should be discontinued. A recent analysis of Medicare records found that, rather than stopping pharmacotherapy and resorting to hospice care, almost 12% of cancer patients in 1999 received chemotherapy in the last two weeks of life, up 2% from 1983.

More than 28 million Americans suffer from migraine headaches, often beginning during adolescence, continuing throughout adulthood, and affecting three times as many women as men. The prescription drug market for the treatment of migraines is about $2 billion annually in this country. Vying for a piece of the pie are several new companies-some utilizing new combinations or new formulations of old drugs and a few developing new drug entities. Here's a heads-up on what's coming our way.

The Food & Drug Administration recently granted marketing approval to oxymorphone immediate-release and oxymorphone extended-release tablets (Opana/Opana ER, Endo Pharmaceuticals).

The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) praised four of the nation's Governors for filing a citizen petition with the FDA seeking immediate release of agency guidance that would pave the way for the introduction of more affordable generic versions of insulin and human growth hormone (HGH). The citizen petition was filed by Govs. Kathleen Sebelius (D, Kan.), Tim Pawlenty (R, Minn.), James H. Douglas (R, Vt.), and Jim Doyle (D, Wis.).

Albemarle Corp., Richmond, Va., a leading producer of bulk ibuprofen, announced that it will increase the price of its bulk ibuprofen by a minimum of 20% in Western Europe and in the United States for spot purchases, effective Sept. 1 and as contracts allow. The company stated that the price increase is to help offset significant raw material and energy cost increases experienced over the past several years.

Teva Pharmaceuticals USA has received FDA approval for the first generic version of Effexor (venlafaxine). The tablets will be available in 25, 37.5, 50, 75, and 100 mg and will be eligible for 180 days of generic drug exclusivity before the agency can approve other generic applications for the drug.

Pfizer is offering free samples of its cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (atorvastatin) via mobile coupons. Working with mobile technology firm ipsh!, patients can redeem a 30-day free -rial size of Lipitor through text-message mobile coupons.

In a trial to be held in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., beginning Sept. 7, Walgreens is being sued for allegedly mislabeling and misfilling a prescription that led to the death of a patient,Leonard Kulisek. In the papers filed during the lawsuit, Walgreens admitted that a pharmacy manager negligently misfilled the prescription.

The FDA is seeking public comment for the next 90 days on how the use of a unique identifier system for medical devices could improve patient safety. Among other things, the agency is hoping that a unique device identification (UDI) could have broad applications in reducing medical errors, improving the reporting of adverse events, facilitating device recalls, and improving delivery and supply chain efficiency for medical devices.

A new article in Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs is reporting that pharmacists filled 43 million prescriptions for sleep drugs in 2005, a number that is up 32% from 2001. The report also notes that direct-to-consumer advertising contributes to increased use of sleep aids.

A revision to the 1998 ACC/AHA practice guidelines for the management of valvular heart disease has been issued. Included are indications for anticoagulation in patients with prosthetic heart valves.