Most chain pharmacies want you to feel safe ordering from them, and so their ads tout the skill, expertise, and personal touch of their tools and personnel. They promise available pharmacists who have computers who alert them to danger, and who can then tell you things like, “Hey, you shouldn’t take these together; it will kill you” if there’s a problem. [More]
Pharma Medicine
The EpiPen Generic Is Finally Here, For $300 Per Twin-Pack
By 12.16.16
A day after Mylan was one of six pharmaceutical companies named in a multi-state lawsuit alleging price-fixing on generic drugs, the maker of high-priced emergency allergy treatment EpiPen announced that the generic version of the popular epinephrine auto-injector is finally hitting the market, giving people a lower-cost (but still pricey) option for buying the drug. [More]
House ‘Freedom Caucus’ Asks Trump To Undo 232 Rules On Net Neutrality, Tobacco, Nursing Homes & Ceiling Fans
By 12.15.16
What’s on your wish list this holiday season? For the few dozen members of the House of Representatives Freedom Caucus, the hope to see President-elect Donald Trump undo or revise more than 200 federal rules involving everything from tobacco to food labels to ceiling fans to your constitutional right to bring a lawsuit against your credit card company. [More]
20 States Accuse Teva, Mylan & Other Pharma Companies Of Price-Fixing
By 12.15.16
When the Justice Department announced it was bringing criminal charges against two former executives of a pharmaceuticals company, alleging a conspiracy to fix prices on generic drugs, we said that this was likely just the tip of the legal iceberg. Today, the industry ran smack into that iceberg — in the form of a lawsuit filed by twenty states against six different drug companies, including notables like Teva and Mylan. [More]
Former Pharma Execs Face Felony Charges For Generic Drug Price-Fixing
By 12.14.16
Federal prosecutors have charged both the former CEO and president of a New Jersey pharmaceutical company with illegally conspiring to fix prices on generic drugs, marking the first time the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has prosecuted a case involving generic medications, and could be the first domino in a series of charges still to come against others. [More]
Lilly Meets With Diabetes Patients, Starts Discounted Insulin Program
By 12.13.16
Even though injectable vials of insulin have been around for nearly a century, and synthetic insulin for almost 40 years, there is no generic form of the vital diabetes medication. In recent years, the price of insulin has risen sharply, leaving healthcare providers with concerns about patients who can’t afford insulin skipping doses and risking lost limbs and eyesight. Pharma giant Eli Lilly — maker of popular insulin brands Humalog, Humulin, and Basaglar — is now proposing a solution that it believes could make the medication more affordable — but only for some people. [More]
Former Pharma Execs Accused Of Boosting Fentanyl Sales By Bribing Doctors With Sham Speaking Engagements
By 12.9.16
Fentanyl is an incredibly potent opioid painkiller; it acts quickly and powerfully, but doesn’t last as long as others, meaning its medical application is limited. So if you’re a drug company trying to boost sales of your new fentanyl spray, how do you sell more of a product that very few people have a real need for? You could bribe doctors with paid “speaking engagements,” take them out and show them the “best nights of their life,” all so they write prescriptions for patients who probably shouldn’t be getting your drug. [More]
State Sues Monsanto For Decades Of Alleged PCB Pollution
By 12.8.16 — Updated: 12.9.16
The federal government banned the use and production of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in 1979 after determining the chemicals are toxic. However, the state of Washington alleges that Monsanto knew as early as 1937 that the PCBs it produced were dangerous, but that company continued to allow them to pollute the state’s waterways. [More]
Bristol-Myers Squibb Agrees To Pay $19.5M Over Improper Marketing Of Medication
By 12.8.16 — Updated: 12.12.16
Prescription medication, when used properly and safely, can provide needed relief to consumers suffering a wide range of illnesses or physical conditions. However, those medications must be marketed and advertised properly. That apparently wasn’t the case for a antipsychotic prescription drug manufactured Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). As a result, the company has agreed to pay $19.5 million in a settlement with 42 states and the District of Columbia. [More]
Why It’s A Problem That Gene For Drug-Resistant Superbug Was Found On U.S. Farm
By 12.6.16
Antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria are nothing new on U.S. farms, so why are some people so concerned about the recent discovery, on an American pig farm, of a gene that confers resistance to a vital class of antibiotics? [More]
Ecstasy Could Become Legal In Controlled Treatments to Treat PTSD
By 12.1.16
MDMA — or “molly” as today’s youngsters call it — is a longtime club drug with some limited medical uses. It may gain a new legitimate use, as the Food and Drug Administration has okayed the last human trial of MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, opening the door for possible approval down the road. [More]
States That Expanded Medicaid Hope To Keep It Under Trump Administration
By 11.28.16
There’s no way to tap-dance around this one: healthcare access is an incredibly politicized and partisan issue in this country. And yet even while our two major political parties disagree vehemently, at every level, about whether existing healthcare laws are effective or worthwhile, at least one part now proving popular in a surprisingly bipartisan way. [More]
Mylan Execs Decline To Testify At Senate EpiPen Hearing On $465M Settlement
By 11.21.16
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch has already made one trip to Capitol Hill to answer questions regarding the skyrocketing price of the emergency epinephrine injectors, but it looks like the company won’t be making a repeat outing to talk with lawmakers. [More]
Homeopathic Treatments To Be Held To Same Standards As Other Health Products
By 11.15.16
Homeopathic medicine is a billion-dollar business, with some of the biggest names in retail selling treatments that contain few — or no — active ingredients, like the CVS brand “Homeopathic Constipation Relief” that is nothing more than a 40-proof mixture of alcohol and water. In spite of the lack of actual medication or supporting evidence, some products still make claims that they can actually treat ailments or relieve pain. Now the federal government is confirming that homeopathic items will be held to the same standards as other products on drugstore shelves. [More]
Mylan To Start Selling $300 Generic EpiPen Pack Next Month
By 11.10.16
Under pressure to reduce the price of its expensive EpiPen emergency allergy treatment, drugmaker Mylan said in August that it would be introducing a generic version of the drug at half the retail price. Now it looks like the less-costly epinephrine auto-injector will be hitting the market after Thanksgiving.
There Is No ‘Natural Diabetes Cure’ In A Pill
By 11.9.16
If you think you might be developing diabetes but are nervous about a trip to the doctor, it might seem like a good idea to pick up an over-the-counter remedy that promises to regulate your blood sugar and prevent or cure the disease. This is, in fact, a terrible idea: these remedies may make unproven claims or promise to cure you or replace prescribed medication. Stay away from these “remedies” that aren’t drugs at all. [More]
Senators Urge Mylan To Reimburse Defense Department For EpiPen Overcharges
By 11.8.16
A week after a report suggested that the Department of Defense had paid full retail price for EpiPens — to the tune of $54 million in overcharges — because the drug’s maker, Mylan, misclassified the live-saving medication, preventing the government from receiving proper rebates, lawmakers are calling on the drugmaker to reimburse those costs. [More]
Court: Nursing Homes Can Continue Stripping New Residents Of Their Right To Day In Court
By 11.7.16
In September, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new rule that would prevent most nursing homes and other long-term care facilities from using forced arbitration to strip new residents of their right to file lawsuits against these companies. The industry soon fired back by doing the very thing it doesn’t want its customers to do: filing a lawsuit. This morning, the judge in the case granted the industry’s request for a preliminary injunction preventing the new rule from being enforced. [More]
