If you’re planning on heading over to Walgreens to refill a prescription, it might take a bit longer than usual: amid an ongoing outage of the drugstore chain’s pharmacy computer database that’s been going on since Tuesday morning, pharmacists have been forced to fill prescriptions by hand. Just like in ye olde days of yore. [More]
Pharma Medicine
Walgreens Pharmacists Manually Filling Prescriptions During Ongoing Computer System Outage
By 9.24.15
California Governor Urged To Sign Bill Limiting Antibiotics In Farm Animals
By 9.22.15
Some 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. go into animal feed, primarily for the purpose of growth-promotion (or under the vague, confusing umbrella of “disease prevention”), a practice that researchers believe is contributing to the development of drug-resistant bacteria that sicken millions, and kill thousands, of Americans each year. California legislators recently passed a bill aimed at limiting the overuse of antibiotics on livestock and it’s now up to Governor Jerry Brown to decide whether or not to sign it. [More]
Doctors Not Happy After Drug Goes From $13.50/Tablet To $750 Overnight
By 9.21.15
Gripe as we might, consumers understand that price increases do happen. What’s not as easily understood is how the price for something can go from $13.50 one day to $750 the next — especially when it’s a generic drug used to save lives. [More]
Johnson & Johnson Pull Ads From “The View” Because Nurses Do Indeed Wear Stethoscopes
By 9.18.15
An offhanded, but definitely ill-informed, comment by View co-host Joy Behar about a nurse wearing a “doctor’s stethoscope” has resulted in one of TV’s biggest advertisers pulling its commercials from the ABC chat-fest. [More]
CVS Employee Charged With Assault For Dragging Suspected Shoplifter Back Into Store
By 9.18.15
A CVS customer tried to return some batteries without a receipt, and was told that she wouldn’t be allowed to. Oh, well: she went to leave the store with her merchandise, and an unidentified man dragged her back inside the store. He was a CVS loss prevention officer, it turns out, but she claims he didn’t identify himself. [More]
Farmers Say They’re Making Too Much Money Off Beef To Go Drug-Free
By 9.15.15
We already know that 4-in-5 popular restaurant chains have put little to no thought into dealing with the overuse of antibiotics in the farm animals that provide the beef, chicken, and pork for their foods. And though chicken titans like Perdue and Tyson are nudging the poultry industry toward fewer antibiotics, cattle farmers are apparently more reluctant to head the drug-free route because they are making big profits on drugged-up cows. [More]
Subway, Burger King, Taco Bell, 17 Others Earn “F” Grades For Antibiotics Policies
By 9.15.15
While recent moves by McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A to reduce the use of antibiotics in the meat they serve may indicate a shift in the industry’s attitude about drugged-up cows and chickens, the overwhelming majority of large fast food and family restaurant chains continue to source beef and poultry raised on unnecessary antibiotics that could result in the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. [More]
Lawmakers Call On USDA To Reduce Farmers’ Reliance On Antibiotics In Chickens
By 9.8.15
Following a 17-month outbreak of salmonella poisoning that sickened at least 600 people around the country, a Dept. of Agriculture advisory committee will meet tomorrow discuss strategies for effectively controlling the spread of salmonella in poultry. In advance of that meeting, two members of Congress are calling on the USDA to take a three-pronged approach to fighting drug-resistant bacteria. [More]
Costco’s Online Photo Services Back Up After Breach, Customers’ Cards May Have Been Compromised
By 9.8.15
If you like viewing and ordering prints of your digital photos from the comfort of your own home and then traipsing to the local Costco to pick up your memories, then we’ve got good news: Costco has finally relaunched its online photo services website after taking the site down upon discovering a breach in July. But there’s also a bit of bad news: some customers’ credit card information may have been captured in the year-long hack. [More]
CVS Claims That Booting Tobacco From Stores Has Made Us All Healthier
By 9.3.15
Today marks the one-year anniversary of CVS removing tobacco products from its pharmacies. How’s that working out for them? The company reports that sales of non-drug items were down slightly in the last year, but tobacco isn’t a very profitable item. Parent company CVS Health is celebrating the anniversary with a study that it says shows that its decision decreased total cigarette sales nationwide. [More]
Kmart Pays $1.4 Million To Settle Accusations Of Illegal Coupon Acceptance, Prescription Incentives
By 9.1.15
In most of the country, pharmacies can offer rewards points, coupons, or other inducements to get you to switch prescriptions to them. Not only is this illegal in certain states, it’s also illegal to offer these incentives to customers with health insurance through Medicaid. Kmart has settled allegations from a whistleblower that it did exactly that for customers with Medicaid, and accepted co-pay coupons for brand-name drugs for them. [More]
After FDA Warning, Kim Kardashian Posts Corrected Endorsement Of Morning Sickness Pill
By 8.31.15
Weeks after federal regulators took issue with drug company Duchesnay for allowing mom-to-be Kim Kardashian to tout the benefits of its morning sickness pill on social media without properly disclosing the drug’s associated risk and limitations, the reality star posted updated endorsements, complete with acknowledgement of the pill’s side effects. [More]
CEOs Of Chipotle, CVS, Discovery, Walmart Make The Most Compared To Employees’ Wages
By 8.25.15
Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission finalized a long-delayed rule that will require many businesses to publicly disclose the ratio of their top executive’s pay to the earnings of the typical employee. If the data in a newly released report is accurate, then the CEOs of Chipotle, CVS, Walmart, and Discovery Communications are each making more than 1,000 times the average salary of the people they employ. [More]
People Trust Optometrists More Than Costco Or 1800CONTACTS, At Least According To Optometrist Group
By 8.25.15
As we’ve previously reported, there’s a legal war going on — with optometrists and manufacturers on one side, and discount and online retailers on the other — over how much you should have to pay for your contact lenses. Both sides of this battle have recently released surveys they hope will help win over public opinion. [More]
Tests Find Drug-Resistant Bacteria In 18% Of Conventionally Raised Ground Beef
August 24, 2015
Bacteria is everywhere, so it’s no surprise that you’ll find at least some ugly little pathogens in any meat products you buy. Most of these bugs won’t survive the cooking process, especially if you get that meat up to 160 degrees before serving. But since so many people like their burgers on the rarer side, it’s smart to know the potential risks. [More]
5 Ground Beef Labels To Look Out For & What They Mean
August 24, 2015
So you’re eating burgers at a cookout with some friends. One pal asks the host, “Hey, is this ground beef organic?” The host smugly answers, “Of course, I only buy grass-fed.” “Oh, so it’s antibiotic free?” queries another buddy, to which the host replies, “Didn’t you hear me? I said it’s grass-fed.” What the host apparently doesn’t know is that he may be very mistaken. [More]
Customs Officials In Miami Keep Finding Cocaine, Heroin Hidden In Flower Shipments
By 8.21.15
Stopping to smell the roses takes on a whole new meaning down in Miami, where federal officials say they’ve found several shipments of flowers going through the airport with cocaine and heroin hidden in them. [More]
FDA To Hold Public Meeting, Seek Comments On Antibiotic Overuse In Farm Animals
By 8.20.15
For decades, livestock farmers inadvertently encouraged the development of drug-resistant bacteria by providing a continuous stream of medically unnecessary antibiotics to their cows, pigs, and chickens — primarily to end up with bigger animals — while the Food and Drug Administration kept the issue on the back-burner. Meanwhile, antibiotic-resistant pathogens sicken more than two million people in the U.S. each year, resulting in at least 23,000 deaths. Now that everyone from consumers to lawmakers to public health advocates to McDonald’s and even Walmart are starting to care about the topic, the FDA is starting to listen. [More]
