As you may have heard, the cost of a life-saving EpiPen from drug maker Mylan increased as much as 600% in just nine years, causing lawmakers and health advocates to call on the drug company — and its CEO Heather Bresch — to lower the cost and provide answers for its increase in the first place. But that could be difficult given the executive’s personal connections not only to the medication, but one legislator. [More]
Pharma Medicine
Where Did The Target Prescription Bottles Everyone Loves So Much Come From, Anyway?
By 8.24.16
We didn’t realize how much affection consumers had for Target’s ClearRX prescription bottling system until the bottles went away after CVS purchased Target’s pharmacies. Maybe customers themselves didn’t realize how attached they were to those bottles until they were consigned to memory, but with the CVS takeover of Target’s pharmacy business, they’re now gone. Why are people so attached to a prescription bottle, though? [More]
Senators Demand Mylan Lower Cost Of Life-Saving Epipens, Call For Congressional Hearing
By 8.23.16
The cost of a life-saving EpiPen from drug maker Mylan increased as much as 600% in just nine years. That’s simply too much, lawmakers say, with some legislators now calling on the pharmaceutical giant to drop its price immediately, while others are pushing for a congressional hearing on the matter. [More]
Customers: CVS Takeover Erased Everything Good About Target Pharmacies
By 8.23.16
One of the reasons that Target gave for its poor performance during a recent earnings call was that stores may have lost some foot traffic because of “some disruptions” when the discount store sold its pharmacy business to CVS. We wondered what that meant, and asked if readers had experienced those “disruptions.” They had, but the bigger problem is something that Target’s executives may not have realized: people filled prescriptions there because they liked things that Target did differently. [More]
McDonald’s Under Pressure To Get Rid Of Antibiotics In All Meat & Dairy, Worldwide
By 8.12.16
McDonald’s recently confirmed that all of the chicken it serves in the U.S. now comes from birds raised without antibiotics that are medically important to humans, but what about all the beef and pork menu items — not to mention the cheese and other dairy items? And what about McDonald’s eateries in other countries? [More]
CVS Launches Own Payment App Tied To Loyalty Program
By 8.11.16
Two years after CVS stopped taking Apple Pay, the pharmacy company has finally rolled out its own version of a mobile payment app tied to a loyalty program. [More]
DEA Denies Governors’ Petitions To Reclassify Marijuana For Medical Use
By 8.11.16 — Updated: 2.23.17
Half the states and the District of Columbia have passed laws legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, but the plant remains an illegal, Schedule I drug on the federal level. Five years after the governors of Rhode Island and Washington petitioned the Drug Enforcement Administration to reconsider this classification, the DEA has denied their requests. [More]
Activist Investors Call On KFC To Phase Out Antibiotics In Chickens
By 8.9.16
With Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and Subway all making an effort to curb antibiotics overuse in chicken and other animals, some investors of Yum Brands say it’s time for KFC to do its part. [More]
Wendy’s Quietly Getting Rid Of Antibiotics In Chicken
By 8.5.16
The same week that McDonald’s publicly touted that its chicken menu items are now 100% free of antibiotics, Wendy’s quietly changed its policies to establish a timeline for ridding its birds of antibiotics that are deemed medically important to humans. [More]
Pfizer To Pay $486M To Settle Lawsuit Over Celebrex, Bextra
By 8.2.16
Pharma giant Pfizer has agreed to pay $486 million to close the books on a decade-long class-action securities lawsuit related to two of the company’s pain relievers, Celebrex and Bextra. [More]
McDonald’s Removing Preservatives From Some Items; Nuggets Now 100% Antibiotics-Free
By 8.1.16
Two decades ago, McDonald’s only real competition was other fast food burger joints, and maybe the local greasy spoon diner. Now, it not only has to stave off the new generation of better burger joints, many of its longtime competitors have begun using fresher ingredients. Today, the nation’s largest non-Subway fast food chain announced revisions to its menu, and a positive update on its plan to phase out antibiotics in the chicken it serves. [More]
Google, GlaxoSmithKline Partner For $715M Bioelectronic Medicines Firm
By 8.1.16
Most of us have used Google to find out more about existing medications, but the tech giant also has a life sciences division, which has now entered into a $715 million partnership with big pharma biggie GlaxoSmithKline to form a new company focused on fighting disease through technological innovations. [More]
Walgreens Closing Beauty.com, Drugstore.com
By 7.29.16
With easy-to-remember names like drugstore.com and beauty.com, one might expect these Walgreens-owned websites to be doing gangbusters business. Yet the retailer says it will shutter both sites by the end of September. [More]
International Partnership Created To Speed Up Antibiotic Development
By 7.28.16
Drug-resistant superbugs are on the rise, increasingly rendering a number of drugs useless even for infections that were once easily treated. At the same time, it’s been more than three decades since medical science found a new class of antibiotics, meaning the bugs may be outpacing the drugs. Today, the U.S. government, along with private organizations in the United Kingdom and stateside, announced a partnership intended to accelerate the development of new antibiotics. [More]
Maintenance Workers Find Three Kilos Of Cocaine Hidden Inside Two JetBlue Planes
By 7.28.16
A few JetBlue planes were apparently carrying some extra cargo, unbeknownst to the airline, after maintenance workers discovered three kilos of cocaine stashed inside compartments on two aircraft recently. [More]
The Average Legal Marijuana User Spends $645 A Year On The Green Stuff
By 7.27.16
Before marijuana became legal in some states, you’d have to figure out on your own how much money you’d spend on weed. But now that recreational pot is a-okay in certain areas, it’s much easier to calculate those numbers. [More]
Rio Drug Dealers Peddling Olympic-Themed Cocaine
By 7.27.16
Tourists in Rio de Janeiro will no doubt have their pick of Olympic merchandise to bring home as souvenirs — whether it’s an officially licensed product, or sold out of the back of someone’s truck. But amid the plethora of hats, T-shirts, and sporty knick-knacks, there are other, more dangerous offerings for sale. [More]
Anyone Can Make & Market A Dietary Supplement, Including Consumer Reports
By 7.27.16
When you see ads for dietary supplements, there are often scientists in lab coats looking at beakers and flasks, saying science-y things. In the real world, just about anyone with a credit card can make and market a supplement, even one that contains potentially unhealthy ingredients. Just ask our colleagues at Consumer Reports, the creators of the new (totally fake) weight-loss supplement Thinitol. [More]
