A year after public health advocates called out drug maker Novartis for continuing to actively market a particular antibiotic as a product farmers could use to fatten up their pigs, the FDA has finally gotten around to issuing a warning. [More]
Pharma Medicine
Appeals Court Blocks Utah Law That Would Have Banned Price-Fixing On Contact Lenses
By 5.14.15
In recent years, many of the country’s biggest contact lens manufacturers moved to set minimum sale prices for their products, meaning any retailer wishing to discount these lenses couldn’t go below that price floor. The practice — which would have been illegal until a 2007 Supreme Court ruling — has come under scrutiny from federal lawmakers, and Utah state legislators passed a bill earlier this year that would outlaw this form of price-fixing in the state. However, a federal appeals court has temporarily sided with the lens makers and blocked that law from being enforced. [More]
Potent New Brand Of Synthetic Marijuana Linked To 120 NYC Hospitalizations In One Week
By 5.14.15
Lest you think health officials have been overreacting to the dangers of synthetic marijuana, a recent spate of hospitalizations may change your mind: In New York City area, one particular new brand of potent synthetic cannabis has sent 120 people to the hospitals in the last week. [More]
CVS Feels Pain Of $22 Million Penalty For Florida Painkiller Pill Mills
By 5.14.15
When you think of Florida and the Drug Enforcement Administration, your head might be filled with images of cocaine-packed speedboats or propeller planes sneaking in pallets of marijuana. But in recent years, the DEA has also been focused on major drugstore chains that looked the other way as stores filled massive numbers of questionable painkiller prescriptions. Nearly three years after shutting down a pair of CVS pharmacies in the Orlando area, the company has agreed to pay $22 million to put the matter behind them. [More]
Johnson & Johnson Creating An Independent Panel To Review Patient Requests For Unapproved Drugs
By 5.7.15
What’s a sick person to do when all the drugs on the market haven’t been able to help ease their ailment? Some of the seriously ill turn to medical trials held by drug companies to gain access to experimental drugs, but it’s not always easy to accomplish. A new system from Johnson & Johnson will employ an independent panel to review requests from seriously ill people who want to try an unapproved drug without participating in the actual testing of the drug. [More]
FDA Continues Crackdown On Dietary Supplement Ingredients, Notifies Makers Of 16 Products To Stop Sales
By 4.28.15
A week after the Food & Drug Administration heeded calls for action by scientists and health advocates by demanding that dietary supplement makers stop selling products with a speed-like ingredient, the agency sent another warning to 14 manufacturers asking them to cease the sale of several products with another possibly harmful stimulant. [More]
Tyson To Further Cut Back On Unnecessary Antibiotics Given To Chickens
By 4.28.15
Last year, Tyson, the nation’s largest poultry provider, announced it would cease using controversial antibiotics at its hatcheries, but left the door open for continued use of the growth-promoting drugs for birds as they matured. Today, the company is pledging to go even further by eliminating “human antibiotics” entirely from its flocks by Sept. 2017. [More]
Health Officials Issue Warning Over Uptick In Hospitalizations Linked To Synthetic Marijuana
By 4.24.15
One of the biggest dangers involved with using so-called designer drugs? One tweak to one chemical and something that’s illegal and potentially unsafe could slip past regulators and into the hands of consumers. Such is the case for a form of synthetic marijuana known as “spice,” that’s been linked to an uptick in illnesses and hospitalizations that has health officials and experts around the country worried. [More]
FDA Warns Makers Of Diet Supplements Containing Speed-Like Ingredient
By 4.23.15
Following calls for action from scientists and consumer health advocates, the FDA has sent warning letters to a handful of diet supplement makers demanding that they cease selling products that contain a speed-like ingredient. [More]
FDA: Antibiotic Use In Farm Animals Grew In Spite Of Regulation
By 4.10.15
Back in 2012, the FDA banned “extra-label” non-medical use in animals for the cephalosporin class of antibiotics, which are commonly used to treat humans for pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and other maladies. Not only did this restriction fail to curb the use of cephalosporins, but a new FDA report shows that the drug use increased following the ban. [More]
Walgreens Closing 200 U.S.-Based Stores In Latest Cost-Cutting Measure
By 4.9.15
Walgreens isn’t just doing away with its “Be well” campaign, the drugstore now also plans to shutter 200 of its 8,232 stores in the U.S. over the next two years. [More]
Chipotle Still Doesn’t Know When Carnitas Will Be Available Everywhere Again
By 4.8.15
It’s been nearly three months since a vendor-related issue led Chipotle to stop selling carnitas burritos at 1/3 of its stores, but the company still doesn’t know when it will be able to meet the full demand from pork fans. [More]
White House Acknowledges Health Risk Of Antibiotics Overuse; Critics Say It Fails To Fully Address Problem
By 3.27.15
In a new White House report on antibiotic resistance, the Obama administration acknowledges the serious public health risk posed by the over-prescription and overuse of antibiotics, and details multi-agency plans to combat the problem. However, many critics of the report say that these plans fail to close a loophole that will allow farmers to continue using medically unnecessary antibiotics on farm animals (who consume 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S.) primarily for the purpose of growth promotion. [More]
Walgreens Cashiers No Longer Required To Tell Customers To “Be Well”
By 3.25.15
Having someone wishing you well is always nice, but when it’s a pre-ordained phrase that you know the person is required to say as part of their job, well, not everyone loves that. And so it goes that Walgreen Co. says it’s putting an end to its “Be well” campaign that had cashiers bestowing the canned blessing upon customers. [More]
Bill Seeks (Again) To End Over-Use Of Antibiotics In Farm Animals
By 3.24.15
Antibiotic resistance is a big problem. Farmers know it. Consumer advocates know it. Doctors, the CDC, and the FDA all know it. You know it. And the largest contributor by far to the crisis is the 80% of antibiotics that are used in industrial farming. And Congress is, once again, taking a stab at making agricultural antibiotic abuse against the law before it’s too late. [More]
American Express Partners With Macy’s, Exxon Mobil & Others For Coalition Loyalty Program
By 3.18.15
Forget about Costco, American Express seems to have moved on from being dumped by the warehouse club, announcing its partnership with a plethora of retailers and companies for a new venture: a coalition loyalty program. [More]
FDA Warns That Chantix May Decrease Users’ Alcohol Tolerance
By 3.11.15
Smokers using the prescription drug Chantix (varenicline) to help them through the quitting process may want to sip their beers slowly, as this week the FDA approved new warnings that the drug can change the way users react to alcohol. [More]
Maker of Infant’s & Children’s Tylenol, Motrin To Pay $25M For Selling Meds With Metal Particles
By 3.10.15
Nearly five years after McNeil Consumer Healthcare – a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson – began recalling over-the-counter Infant’s and Children’s Tylenol and Children’s Motrin, the company has acknowledged that it knowingly sold the cold medication that contained metal particles and agreed to pay $25 million to resolve the case. [More]
