Chain Pharmacy

In this section we showcase products and product news that ran up against space limitations or fell outside the parameters of recently featured categories in the print edition. Look for more OTC Product News in upcoming issues of the Community Pharmacists? Report.

The National Community Pharmacists Association Foundation has announced activities it will be sponsoring during the NCPA annual convention and trade expo in Nashville October 8-12.

FDA is now requiring prescribing information for Reclast (zoledronic acid, Novartis) to include a warning against use of the drug by patients with renal dysfunction.

An interaction between warfarin and acetaminophen may result in significant elevations of international normalized ratio (INR), putting patients at increased risk for hemorrhagic complications.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) should be used with caution during pregnancy, as exposure may increase the risk of spontaneous abortion, reported a study published online September 6 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

People who carry more weight for a longer period of time are at a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a new study has reported.

The National Community Pharmacists Association is joining forces with GeriMed to support long-term-care pharmacies.

SCRIPT Version 10.6, the standard for e-prescribing and related transactions that the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs has been recommending for several years, will be coming into use in upcoming months.

An FDA advisory panel voted 9-2 (with 1 abstention) to recommend approval for rivaroxaban (Xarelto, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer AG), an oral, once-daily anticoagulant as a treatment to prevent stroke and systemic embolism in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.

Annual flu vaccines are the best way to protect children from life-threatening pneumonia, according to new guidelines from the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Infectious Disease Society of America.

This year?s annual meeting of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy taking place October 16 through October 19 in Pittsburgh, Pa., will offer several sessions in 3 different curricular tracks.

Pharmacists and other healthcare professionals have the opportunity to attend a clinical vaccinology course at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Atlanta, Ga., November 4 through November 6, 2011.

Morton Pharmacy, a 79-year-old retail pharmacy chain, is selling a majority of its business to Walgreens because of what Morton executives call a difficult business climate for community pharmacies.

Only one-fifth of children in Ohio who are prescribed antidepressants complete the recommended mimimum six-month course of drugs to treat depression, a new study reported.

FDA has approved orphenadrine citrate injection, USP (Sagent Pharmaceuticals), a skeletal muscle relaxant as an adjunct to rest, physical therapy, and other measures to support relief from acute, painful musculoskeletal conditions.

Drugs such as Taxol, Cytarabine, Daunorubicin, Doxil, and Leucovorin are in short supply, delaying patients with various forms of cancer from getting the treatments they need or forcing them to seek alternative, possibly less-effective treatments, FDA announced recently.

Pharmacy practice may be changing on many levels, but this pharmacist's vivid word-pictures remind us that some basic issues have never gone away.

FDA is alerting healthcare professionals that repackaged intravitreal injections of Roche Holdings' Avastin (bevacizumab) have caused a cluster of serious eye infections in the Miami, Fla., area.

Patients discharged from the hospital are at increased risk of not continuing their long-term medications for chronic diseases, and ICU admission appears to expand this risk, according a recent study published August 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

FDA has approved crizotinib (Xalkori, Pfizer), the first and only therapy specifically for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer that is ALK-positive as detected by an FDA-approved test.

An innovative pharmacy coaching program from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Ohio has helped a number of patients better manage diabetes and hypertension.

Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association will hold a ?Future Pharmacy Owner Workshop? September 24 at the Crowne Plaza Valley Forge in King of Prussia, Penn., for chain employees as well as for phamacists in any setting, including new practitioners and student pharmacists interested in pharmacy ownership. The workshop is being held in conjunction with the association's annual conference.

FDA has approved tapentadol extended-release tablets (Nucynta ER, Janssen Pharmaceuticals), an oral analgesic taken twice daily, for the management of moderate-to-severe chronic pain in adults when a continuous, around-the-clock opioid analgesic is needed for an extended period of time.

FDA has approved onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox, Allergan) for injection for the treatment of urinary incontinence resulting from detrusor overactivity associated with a neurologic condition (e.g., spinal cord injury [SCI], multiple sclerosis [MS]) in adults who have an inadequate response to or are intolerant of an anticholinergic medication.

FDA has approved icatibant (Firazyr, Shire Human Genetic Therapies) injection for the treatment of acute attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE) in patients 18 years of age and older.

FDA has notified healthcare professionals and patients that the antidepressant citalopram hydrobromide (Celexa, Forest Laboratories) should no longer be used at doses greater than 40 mg per day because it can cause abnormal changes in the electrical activity of the heart.

Last summer FDA announced an action plan for medical countermeasures, such as drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic tests, to be used in responding to a public health emergency. The part of that effort aimed at regulatory science for medical countermeasures has been getting off the ground in recent months, FDA said in an August 19 presentation, with 85 intramural research projects in different parts of the agency.

An antidote indicated for the treatment of acute cyanide poisoning judged to be life-threatening has launched.

A pharmacist-directed anticoagulation service greatly improved care for warfarin patients, reported a new study published in the July/August issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

Medicare Part D beneficiaries who are responsible for 100% of previously subsidized prescription costs are twice as likely to discontinue their medications, according to a new study published in PLoS Medicine.