If you’ve used your credit or debit card to purchase photo prints through CVSPhoto, you might want to pay attention. The drugstore chain has taken down CVSPhoto.com while it investigates a possible credit card data breach. [More]
Pharma Medicine
FDA Requiring Stronger Heart Attack & Stroke Warnings For Many Common Painkillers
By 7.10.15
The Food and Drug Administration is looking to make consumers more aware of potential risks for heart attack and stroke associated with a popular class of painkillers that many of us use on a frequent basis for everyday aches and soreness. [More]
Perdue Says Half Its Chickens Now Raised Without Any Antibiotics At All
By 7.8.15
Almost a year ago, Perdue — one of the biggest names in chicken — announced its hatcheries would cease using antibiotics that were medically important to human beings, and today the company said that it has reached a milestone in the move to curb the dangerous overuse of these vital drugs, claiming that more than half of its birds are now being raised without the use of any sort of antibiotics at all. [More]
CVS Health Resigns From U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Over International Tobacco Advocacy
By 7.7.15
You may remember last fall when CVS removed tobacco products from its stores, maybe realizing that selling medicine in the back of the store and addictive carcinogen sticks in the front is kind of a confusing message. However, CVS Health is also a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an organization doing its best to lobby for America’s tobacco industry in other countries. CVS resigned from the Chamber today for that reason. [More]
Drug-Sniffing Dogs Find Shipping Container Full Of Cocaine-Stuffed Shrimp
By 6.25.15
We are fairly certain that cocaine-stuffed shrimp is not a Guyanese delicacy. That’s how 268 kilograms of cocaine arrived in a shipping container at a port in Brooklyn, though. Law enforcement followed the delivery to a warehouse in Queens and arrested a man in the seafood business, who claims that he had nothing to do with the shipment. [More]
Groups Call On Subway’s Sandwich Artists To Use Antibiotic-Free Meat In Their Masterpieces
By 6.23.15
With major fast food chains like McDonald’s, Chick fil-A, Chipotle, and Panera all now sourcing at least some meat that wasn’t raised using medically important antibiotics, a coalition of some 50 consumer and health advocacy groups are asking Subway, the fast food chain with the most stores in the U.S., to give drug-free meat a try. [More]
Court Allows Utah To Ban Price-Fixing Of Contact Lenses
By 6.15.15
Contact lens companies have been working together to create price floors for their products, prohibiting retailers from offering competitive discounts and removing consumers’ ability to shop around for savings. Legislators in Utah recently passed a bill that would outlaw this practice but in May a federal appeals court temporarily blocked it from being enacted. But on Friday, the court vacated that injunction, allowing the new law to move forward. [More]
CVS Buying Target’s Pharmacy Business For $1.9 Billion
By 6.15.15
If you’re a Target shopper who picks up your prescription refills at the same time you get your groceries, towels, toilet paper, and whatever else you buy at the big-box retailer, your Target’s in-store pharmacy could soon be run by CVS. [More]
Walgreens Wants To Lure Shoppers With A Makeover For The Makeup Aisle
By 6.11.15
For some, when it comes to buying makeup or beauty products the destination is always the department store, not the drug store. At department stores there are sales associates to help you find the right colors to complement your skin or offer high-end beauty brands. But Walgreens wants to change that, with a revamp of its beauty and cosmetics area. [More]
FDA Closer To Approving Twice-Rejected Female Libido Drug
By 6.5.15
Yesterday, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended that the agency approve a new drug, flibanserin, which would be marketed under the brand name Addyi. In headlines and in news reports, you see references to the drug as a “pink Viagra” or “Viagra for women.” Yet the drug works on the brain, not the genitals, and critics say that its side effects may not be worth its proven benefits. The FDA has already rejected the drug twice. [More]
Former CVS Workers Claim They Were Told To Watch Minority Shoppers In Some NYC Stores
By 6.4.15
Four former CVS workers have filed a federal lawsuit against the company alleging that their supervisors ordered them to keep an eye on minority shoppers in some New York City stores, even when there was no indication that those targeted customers might steal. [More]
We Know How To Read Over-The-Counter Drug Labels, But We Don’t Always Understand The Potential Dangers
By 6.3.15
When you buy some Tylenol or NyQuil, you probably know — or find out easily from looking at the label — that these products contain acetaminophen. But knowing the names of active ingredients in an over-the-counter drug isn’t the same as knowing how those ingredients will interact with other drugs or what could happen if you take too much. A new study looks at the apparent disconnect between reading a label and understanding the potentially dangerous implications of what you’re taking. [More]
White House Makes Push For Private Sector To Help Curb Dangerous Overuse Of Antibiotics
By 6.2.15
Today at the White House, representatives for some 150 organizations, including Consumer Reports, and private companies gathered for a forum on how to rein in the rampant, and potentially deadly, overuse of antibiotics in everything from hospitals to farm animals. [More]
Foster Farms, Company Behind Salmonella Outbreak, To Cut Down On Antibiotics It Shoves Down Chickens’ Throats
By 6.1.15
Foster Farms is one of the country’s largest poultry, cranking out millions of birds each week. It’s also the company behind a recent outbreak of drug-resistant salmonella that sickened more than 600 people in 29 states. Today, the company has changed its antibiotics policies so that its chickens will no longer be fed medically unnecessary drugs. [More]
Walmart To Require Meat Suppliers Provide Data On Antibiotics Use
By 5.22.15
Antibiotics used on farm animals account for more than 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S., and many of these drugs are medically important to the health of human beings. The overuse of antibiotics results in the development of drug-resistant pathogens, thus making the antibiotics less effective and requiring more potent drugs. Some of the nation’s biggest buyers of meat are making the switch toward purchasing antibiotic-free meat (or meat that is only given drugs not deemed medically important to humans), and today Walmart said it will begin collecting and sharing data on the antibiotics used by its meat suppliers. [More]
CVS Buys Nursing Home Pharmacy Chain, Drug Provider OmniCare For $12.7B
By 5.21.15
CVS plans to spend $12.7 billion to buy pharmacy-service provider Omnicare Inc. in order to gain a larger foothold in the quickly expanding long-term care industry and specialty pharmacy market. [More]
Oakland Airport Baggage Handlers Accused Of Participating In Marijuana Smuggling Ring
By 5.19.15
Federal officials say they’ve uncovered an alleged marijuana smuggling ring that involved three baggage handlers working at Oakland International Airport. Because airport workers can go behind the scenes where others can’t, investigators say the baggage handlers used their security badges to access off-limits areas and get pot from one point to another. [More]
New FDA Rule Would Provide More Information About Antibiotics In Farm Animals, But Still Not Enough
By 5.19.15
After decades of inaction on the issue, the FDA is slowly taking actions that it hopes will curb the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals, which currently accounts for around 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. The agency’s latest measure, if approved, will provide more information about how farmers are using these medically important drugs, but by the FDA’s own admission, it’s still not sufficient. [More]
