As it awaits the final verdict from regulators on its pending billion-dollar purchase of rival office supply chain Office Depot, Staples is preparing to go it alone by announcing plans to shutter at least 50 of its own stores in order to slow declining sales. [More]
plan b
FDA: Generic Morning-After Pills Can Be Sold Off The Shelf Without Proof Of Buyer’s Age
By 3.3.14
When the Food and Drug Administration decided last year that the brand name version of the morning-after pill, Plan B, could be sold to anyone of any age without a prescription, it granted the drug’s manufacturer three years of protection from generic competition. The FDA has now reconsidered that concession. [More]
New EU Warning Label: Emergency Contraceptives Less Effective In Women Weighing 165 Pounds Or More
By 11.25.13
It should be obvious that the dose of medication that works in one person doesn’t work in all people. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise for women this morning to learn that an emergency contraceptive pill identical to the one sold here in the US as Plan B will carry a new warning label in Europe cautioning women that it doesn’t work if they weigh too much. [More]
Feds Decide Women Of All Ages Should Have Access To The Morning After Pill
By 6.11.13
The federal government has backed down from its previous position that only women 15 or older could purchase emergency contraception without prescriptions, and told a judge that it will comply with his order that girls of any age should have access to it. This includes Plan B, the one-step form of the pill, whereas recently a judge had only been able to clear the way for a generic, two-day version for all ages. [More]
Court Gives Females Of All Ages Permission To Buy Generic Emergency Contraception
By 6.6.13
There’s been a bit of a back and forth between the courts and the White House recently over who can buy what kinds of emergency contraception, or the morning after pill. The Food and Drug Administration had approved the one-pill brand name Plan B for any women 15 or older, which didn’t apply to other forms. But now a federal appeals court says girls of any age can buy two-step generic versions without prescriptions while the federal government appeals a judge’s ruling that any females can get Plan B, regardless of age. [More]
FDA Approves Morning-After Pill For Anyone 15 And Older Without A Prescription
By 5.1.13
The Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday that the morning-after pill has been approved for girls and women 15 and older without a prescription, as well as putting it out on drugstore shelves instead of keeping it stashed behind the pharmacy counter. [More]
Study: Pharmacies Lie To Teens About Legal Age To Get Emergency Contraception
By 3.27.12
It’s legal for 17-year-olds to go to the pharmacy and buy emergency contraception like Plan B, but that isn’t stopping pharmacy workers from lying to teens and telling them they’re too young for it, says an undercover survey included in a new study. [More]
Should More Schools Have Plan B Contraceptive Available From Vending Machines?
By 2.7.12
Pennsylvania’s Shippensburg University is making headlines across the country today after newspapers and TV stations picked up an AP story about the school offering Plan B emergency contraceptive (you can also call it levonorgestrel if you’re not into brand names) via a vending machine in the school’s health center. [More]
Judge Orders F.D.A. To Make Plan B Available To 17-Year-Olds
By 3.28.09
Great news, 17-year-olds! A federal judge has ruled that you can now avoid accidental babies by partaking in the emergency contraceptive wonder that is Plan B. Back in 2006, the Food and Drug Administration limited the contraceptive to women 18 and over, and ordered pharmacists to hide the drug behind their counters away from other common contraceptives. Judge Edward Korman ruled this week that the agency’s decision was based on politics not science, and that it constituted an unacceptable public health buzzkill.
Walgreens Jerks You Around When You Try To Buy Plan B
By 12.1.08
A reader’s girlfriend tried to buy Plan B yesterday, but the Oxford, MS Walgreens pharmacy seemed to go out of their way to make it has hard as possible. Mere incompetence doesn’t explain what happened. Instead, it sounds more like a consciously decided system of policies designed to discourage people from buying the pill…
CVS Refuses Foreign ID To Buy "Plan B" Birth Control
By 5.5.08
Reader John and his friend Michelle found themselves in a situation where they needed to get “Plan B” birth control, also known as “the morning after pill.” They went to their local CVS in Hawthorne, CA. and met an uncooperative pharmacist who refused them access to the pills because Michelle only had foreign ID to prove she is of legal age. (18+) The pharmacist also refused John’s state issued ID with the reason that it could not be sold to man, however, the FDA’s website clearly says that Plan B can be sold OTC to a man or woman who is 18 or over. Find out what happened to John and Michelle, inside….
FDA Approves Over The Counter Plan B
By 8.25.06
Consumers everywhere can now put down their Siphilum divining rods, the Food and Drug Administration gave thumbs up for a next-day pregnancy prevention pill without prescription.
FDA Says Plan B Causes Teen Sex Cults
By 4.28.06 — Updated: 10.25.12
What the hell? The Manhattan-based Center for Reproductive Rights is grilling FDA officials on their failure to approve the Plan B pill as a drug that can be distributed without a prescription. Why might they not have approved it?
Wal-Mart To Begin Stocking Morning-After Pill
By 3.21.06
Wal-Mart, finally caving to opposition, will start selling the Plan B morning-after pill at its pharmacies across the nation this week. The decision comes after the Massachusetts Pharmacy Board determined that Wal-Mart was required to sell the pill in its 44 Massachusetts pharmacies, after a similar ruling in Illinois.
