Health System

Longs Drugs has turned down an unsolicited purchase offer of $3 billion from Walgreens and plans to move forward with its sale to CVS Caremark.

FDA has approved clotrimazole cream USP 1 percent for treatment of skin itching or burning.

In addition to its earlier FDA approval for prevention of cervical cancer, Gardasil has received FDA approval for use in preventing vaginal and vulvar cancers in girls and women age 9 to 26.

Patient education and self-management are key to successful diabetes care. Pharmacies around the country are initiating classes and programs and offering special supplies and products geared to people with diabetes.

Previous medication therapies for diabetes were limited to insulin, sulfonylureas, and metformin. Promising new approaches include DPP-IV inhibitors, GLP-1 analogues, and SGLT-2 inhibitors.

In addition to syringes and insulin vials, products already on the market or in the works include insulin pens, pumps, patches, sprays, and inhaled and oral insulin.

While emergency officials scramble to restore power to homes and businesses throughout the hurricane-ravaged Galveston, Texas-area, Walgreens has reopened it store in the midst of the city to provide much-needed supplies and pharmacy services.

FDA approves clotrimazole cream. The generic will be available in 15g tubes, 30g tubes, and 45g tubes.

A new fully synthetic heparin may be safer and more pure than the current heparin product.

Pharmacists express doubts about PhRMA's new marketing code, e-prescribing, and prompt pay.

A new label design from PharMEDium should make a medication's name and dose easier to read and recognize. The enhanced labeling will be applied first to four patient-controlled, IV pain-management drugs as well as local anesthetics for nerve-block therapy.

The transplant unit at Indiana University is using a free, Web-based program to help physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and patients manage prescriptions.

The ASHP IV Safety Summit convened a panel of experts to explore ways to combat errors in use of IV medications.

C. difficile may now be causing 500,000 cases a year and contributing to more than 20,000 deaths. The epidemic is increasing.

The American Thoracic Society End-of-Life Care Task Force has published new guidelines for treatment of patients with advanced respiratory diseases or critical illnesses.

PhRMA's revised marketing code, which goes into effect January 2009, tightens the restrictions on gifts, meals, and honoraria given to healthcare providers.

A survey of new drugs, new indications, new formulations, new generics, new OTC, and new products.

The author believes that the FDA should be given more funding to beef up its inspections of foreign sources of drugs.

Lawmakers are using financial carrots and sticks to induce doctors to begin electronic prescribing.

As reimbursements are curtailed, hospitals must change the way they order, dispense, and charge for drugs.

Current treatments cannot cure cold sores, but they can relieve symptoms. Several new products offer promising results.

Controversy continues in Congress over Medicare Part D price controls.

While the new MIPPA law implements several pro-pharmacy measures, other provisions ultimately could hurt a pharmacist's bottom line.

Two US pharmacists volunteer at Beijing Olympics.

Medication management is part of the new 'medical home,' with primary care physicians taking responsibility for supervision of patient health and coordinated care.

On October 1, 2008, San Francisco becomes the first city in the United States to ban the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in pharmacies.

Pharmacy Alliance launches in Galveston, Texas, to promote better working conditions for pharmacists.

New guidelines discuss how to treat HCV patients who also have kidney disease.

New approaches for treating pancreatic cancer include immunotherapy, biological agents, hyperthermia, and botanicals.

FDA has approved Stavzor, delayed-release soft gelatin capsules of valproic acid, for the treatment of bipolar disorder.