Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?

Recent lawsuits are asking courts whether the current crisis is comparable to the one over tobacco in the ’90s.

from The Atlantic

Opioid abuse is rampant in states like Ohio, where paramedics are increasingly spending time responding to overdoses and where coroners’ offices are running out of room to store bodies. In 2012, there were 793 million doses of opioids prescribed in the state, enough to supply every man, woman, and child, with 68 pills each. Roughly 20 percent of the state’s population was prescribed an opioid in 2016. And Ohio leads the nation in overdose deaths.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Texas on Track to Become First State to Explicitly Back Stem Cell Therapies

For years, clinics across the country have been offering experimental stem cell therapies, but no state has given them legal validation—yet.

from STAT

Lawmakers in Austin have approved a bill authorizing unapproved stem cell therapies, putting Texas on track to become the first state to explicitly recognize the experimental treatments.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

New FDA Commissioner Gottlieb Unveils Price-fighting Strategies

The FDA can’t regulate drug prices, but it can implement measures aimed at deterring the types of price hikes that have made so many headlines over more than a year.

from FiercePharma

During the campaign and since the U.S. presidential election, President Donald Trump has pledged to bring down drug costs and, in some cases, railed against the industry for its pricing. Now, his new FDA commissioner is laying out some approaches the agency will take to fight high prices.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Taxing Drug Price Spikes: Assessing the Potential Impact

How a proposed tax penalty on drugs with price increases exceeding the inflation could impact patients, public insurance programs, and innovation.

from Health Affairs Blog

On March 29, 2017, senior Democrats introduced comprehensive legislation (titled the Improving Access to Affordable Prescription Drugs Act) in the House and Senate aimed at lowering prescription drug costs and improving transparency. The 129-page bill contains several popular provisions that could help drive its passage or could reappear in a future bipartisan attempt to repair or replace the Affordable Care Act. One such provision is section 202, which establishes an excise tax on drugs with price increases exceeding the inflation rate. The amount of the tax penalty would depend on the size of the price increase. It is modeled on similar rebates already in place for Medicaid, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Department of Defense.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

As Trump Pressures FDA for Faster Drug Approvals, Major Safety Issues with Past Approvals Surface

Researchers found nearly a third of approvals from 2001 through 2010 had major safety issues years after they were widely available to patients.

from HealthcareFinance

The Food and Drug Administration is under pressure from the Trump administration to approve drugs faster, but researchers at the Yale School of Medicine found that nearly a third of those approved from 2001 through 2010 had major safety issues years after they were widely available to patients.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

How Pharmacists Can Lead an Opioid Exit Plan

Managing post-op pain is a team effort—and who better to lead the team than a medication expert?

from ModernMedicine

A paper in JAPhA highlights the important role pharmacists can play in leading an opioid exit plan (OEP). The paper, “Opioid exit plan: A pharmacist’s role in managing acute postoperative pain,” is a case study of how the pain management team at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI, operates. St. Joseph’s developed a pharmacist-led OEP that has been successful in helping to manage postoperative pain and provide patient education.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

FDA Clears New ALS Drug for US Market

The arrival of Radicava for ALS marks the first new drug in the market for this rare disease since 1995.

from BioPharmaDive

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Radicava (edaravone) in the U.S. as the first new drug in two decades to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. This will be marketed by MT Pharma America, a division of Japanese company Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Congress Defies Trump, Gives Big Raise to NIH Medical Research

Congress grants the National Institutes of Health a $2 billion raise.

from NBC News

The budget agreement, finalized in the wee hours of Monday morning, also defies Trump’s demand for cuts to NASA’s earth science program, which the administration had targeted as part of a wider promise to cut climate change research. And it provides $103 million to fight the opioid abuse epidemic — an area of rare bipartisan agreement that even Trump supports.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Diabetes and Rural Areas: Pharmacists Identify Neuropathy

The incidence of diabetes is 17% higher in rural areas than it is in cities.

from Pharmacy Times

Diabetes is quickly becoming a rural problem in the United States, where its incidence has been reported to be 17% higher in rural areas than in cities. Patients in rural areas who have diabetes often have lower access to care and are more likely to be uninsured, hospitalized, or poor. Nationally, between 28% and 45% of patients who have diabetes develop diabetic neuropathy, which often leads to unregulated glycemic control if left untreated.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

1st Pharmacy Tech Administers Immunization

In March, Idaho passed the first law in the U.S. allowing pharmacy technicians to administer immunizations.

from Drug Store News

An Albertsons pharmacy technician has become the first in the nation to administer an immunization to a patient. The new ability for the technician is the product of new law in Idaho brought about by a partnership between Albertsons and Washington State University College of Pharmacy, who worked together to develop the first pilot program to train pharmacy technicians to provide immunizations with permission from the Idaho board of pharmacy.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.