Sat.May 06, 2023 - Fri.May 12, 2023

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4 key facts on medicine prices and spending

PhRMA

This week, policymakers on Capitol Hill will continue to discuss the cost of lifesaving medicines and how to make them more affordable for Americans. It’s an important discussion that the biopharmaceutical industry believes we need to have. A new treatment or cure can’t improve a patient’s life if they can’t get it. As the conversation continues in Congress, IQVIA is out with a new and timely report on medicine prices and spending.

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Pharmacists Are in Key Positions to Tackle Black Maternal Mortality Disparities

Pharmacy Times

Tackling racial disparities among health care providers can help improve disparities faced by patients.

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FDA panel votes in favor of the first-ever over-the-counter birth control pill

STAT

In a highly significant move, a panel of independent experts on Wednesday voted unanimously that the Food and Drug Administration should approve the first over-the-counter birth control bill, a recommendation that holds the potential to transform the way contraception is delivered in the United States. After nearly two days of deliberations, the FDA advisory panel weighed a gamut of data and analyses to assess whether the pill — which was first approved as a prescription medicine decades

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What Demographic Is The Most Likely To Receive Medication For Opioid Use Disorder?

Drug Topics

A new CDC report on data collected by the Maternal and Infant Network to Understand Outcomes Associated with Medication for Opioid Use Disorder During Pregnancy, indicates that medication for opioid use disorder is more often given to individuals who are White, older, and have private insurance.

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Position Your Pharmacy for Expansion

Speaker: Chris Antypas and Josh Halladay

Access to limited distribution drugs and payer contracts are key to pharmacy expansion. But how do you prepare your operations to take the next step? Meaningful data: Collect and share clinical data regarding outcomes, utilization, and more Reporting: Limited distribution models require efficient tracking and reporting systems Workflows: Align workflows with specific pharma and payer contractual requirements For in-depth, expert insights on pharmacy expansion, watch this webinar from Inovalon.

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A Win for Indiana Patients: “Share the Savings” Legislation Now Law

PhRMA

Indiana just joined West Virginia and Arkansas in delivering an important win for Hoosiers who are struggling to afford their medicines. This week, Governor Holcomb signed into law Senate Bill 8 recently passed by the Indiana legislature. This new law will ensure that Indiana patients aren’t paying more for their medicines than their health insurance company or the middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

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Novel Treatment Achieves Up to 14.9% Weight Loss After 46 Weeks

Pharmacy Times

BI 456906 activates the GLP-1 and glucagon receptors that help to control metabolic function, and could potentially offer clinically relevant benefits for those living with obesity or overweight without type 2 diabetes.

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Combining Keytruda And Chemo May Improve Survival in Advanced Endometrial Cancer

Drug Topics

Patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer treated with Keytruda plus chemotherapy had improved progression-free survival compared with chemotherapy alone.

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Mental Health Awareness Month: Fighting the growing mental health crisis and supporting innovation

PhRMA

America is currently facing a mental health crisis — one that is impacting families and individuals in every community, with the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbating these trends. Mental Health Awareness Month, which is held each year in May, presents an opportunity to discuss ways to address the growing burden of, and stigma surrounding, mental illness.

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Variation in Psoriasis Treatment Regimens Come at a Cost

Pharmacy Times

Due to the disease’s chronicity, the variability in treatment response and drug safety profiles, and the availability of multiple therapies, switching or discontinuing treatments is common in psoriasis.

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“I don’t see this as an end to the pandemic”: Ashish Jha on the end of Covid public health emergency

STAT

On the eve of the expiration date for the federally declared coronavirus public health emergency , White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha warned that the pandemic is far from over. “I don’t see this as an end to the pandemic or fighting Covid,” Jha said at a STAT event in Boston on Wednesday. “I see this as a transition out of this emergency phase into a very different phase.

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What the FDA's New Dosage Guidance Means for the Future of Clinical Research

Speaker: Dr. Ben Locwin - Biopharmaceutical Executive & Healthcare Futurist

What will the future hold for clinical research? A recent draft from the FDA provides valuable insight. In "Optimizing the Dosage of Human Prescription Drugs and Biological Products for the Treatment of Oncologic Diseases," the FDA notes that "targeted therapies demonstrate different dose-response relationships compared to cytotoxic chemotherapy, such that doses below the Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD) may have similar efficacy to the MTD but with fewer toxicities.

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RPHCast, Episode One: Statins, Bloood Pressure, and Curves Galore

Drug Topics

Listen to the first episode of RPHCast, where Kevin and Donna educate you on all things statins, blood pressure, cholesterol, and as many curves as you can imagine.

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Insulin: Key Facts on Access & Affordability

PhRMA

Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) will examine the cost of insulin and how to make this lifesaving medicine more affordable for patients. The nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are expected to testify. These are the middlemen that insurance companies use to determine what’s covered and what patients pay out of pocket at the pharmacy.

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Impact of the Specialty Pharmacy Care Model on Patient Outcomes

Pharmacy Times

The extra surveillance by a specialty pharmacy teams allows for faster initiation of therapy, earlier recognition of adverse effects, and promotes patient safety.

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Can GLP-1 obesity therapy restore NK cell function?

European Pharmaceutical Review

NK cell functionality was restored in participants following gold-standard pharmacological obesity GLP-1 analogue treatment, according to a study published in Obesity. This may contribute to the benefits reported with these medications in people with obesity, the data showed. Reducing the risk of cancer in obese individuals Boosting function of NK cells Previous research has found that people with obesity are at higher risk for developing cancer.

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5 Reasons to Upgrade Your Pharmacy Management Software

Are you still using workarounds to manage your daily operations? To achieve peak performance, it's time to explore other options for specialty and infusion pharmacy software. Streamline pharmacy operations and improve clinical performance with automated processing, real-time data exchange, and electronic decision support. Download this helpful infographic to: Drive efficiency and patient adherence from referral receipt to delivery and ongoing care – all with our Pharmacy Cloud.

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How Health Care Systems Are Working to Improve DEI Efforts

Drug Topics

Research shows that patient experiences and sometimes outcomes are improved when they are treated by health care professions from similar communities.

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Support for continued progress is critical for pediatric drug development

PhRMA

Researching and developing new medicines for children is a priority for the biopharmaceutical industry. Despite the scientific complexity and challenges inherent to developing treatments for our youngest patients, there has never been more progress in pediatric health outcomes. The progress we are seeing in pediatric health outcomes is in part due to the advancement in medicines that have been specifically studied in and approved for use in children.

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Overcoming Workplace Challenges, Providing Personalized Health Care With Generative AI

Pharmacy Times

Commonly, essential yet routine and time-consuming tasks, such as answering phone calls, scheduling appointments, or other administrative work, prevent health care workers from focusing on more value-added and enjoyable job functions.

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Opinion: The amoxicillin shortage continues to force pediatricians and families to scramble

STAT

“S o, you don’t have it in liquid form?” I asked. The answer, as usual, was no. I hung up the phone and sighed.

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USDA provides conditional license for Canine Parvovirus Monoclonal Antibody

Drug Topics

The brand-new treatment from Elanco is currently the only approved therapeutic solution proven to treat canine parvovirus.

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Industry Voices—Where we go from here: Community pharmacy in a post-pandemic world

Fierce Healthcare

Industry Voices—Where we go from here: Community pharmacy in a post-pandemic world pminemyer Thu, 05/11/2023 - 14:47

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FDA Panel Votes Unanimously in Favor of First OTC Birth Control Medication

Pharmacy Times

An FDA committee voted 17-0 to make the once-daily birth control medication Opill available OTC after deciding the benefits outweigh any potential harms.

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Rare-disease doctors support expanded newborn genomic screening, survey finds

STAT

Plummeting costs of DNA sequencing technologies are injecting urgency into the longstanding debate over whether to dive deeper into the genomes of more infants — even apparently healthy ones. Experts are divided about how helpful DNA sequencing data really are. The tests often identify mutations that raise someone’s risk of developing a condition, but don’t necessarily cause the disease.

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Current TRD Treatment Model: Part 1

Drug Topics

The panelists provide an overview of the treatment model for treating patients with treatment-resistant depression.

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The emergence of tranq amidst the fentanyl crisis

Pharmaceutical Technology

In February, the FDA issued an alert restricting the import of the veterinary sedative xylazine or tranq and the ingredients used to make the drug. This followed in the wake of a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Joint Intelligence Report in October 2022, which stated that xylazine is widely available from Chinese suppliers on the internet. According to a June 2022 study, xylazine has been detected in the illicit drug supply in 36 US States, and the DEA has reported that approximately 30% of the f

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Study Associates Low-Dose, Daily Vitamin D3 With Statistically Significant Reduction in Cancer Mortality

Pharmacy Times

A daily low-dose form of vitamin D3 was more effective on cancer mortality than intake of a monthly high-dose form, especially for adults aged 70 years and older.

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STAT+: EQRx abandons business plan around drug pricing, cuts jobs and programs

STAT

EQRx, a company that aimed to lower drug prices by introducing inexpensive me-too medicines, said Tuesday that it has abandoned that plan and is laying off nearly 60% of its workforce. The company’s original business plan was to create new medicines in the same categories as high-priced cancer and specialty drugs and to sell them at lower prices through a “global buyers club” that included insurers and hospitals.

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Myasthenia Gravis Patients Fare Better With COVID-19 When Vaccinated

Drug Topics

Unvaccinated patients who were older at MG onset and at SARS-CoV-2 infection had more severe cases.

Vaccines 184
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Payers uniquely positioned to enhance health equity, United Hospital Fund report says

Fierce Healthcare

Payers uniquely positioned to enhance health equity, United Hospital Fund report says agliadkovskaya Thu, 05/11/2023 - 10:07

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Parents More Likely to Vaccinate Children Against COVID-19 After Talking to Trusted Parent

Pharmacy Times

Investigators found that providing parents with a hypothetical scenario outlining why they should immunize their children against COVID-19 was effective in improving vaccination rates.

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STAT+: How the FDA’s pandemic flexibilities boosted mental health apps — and what happens now

STAT

In April 2020, the Food and Drug Administration announced a pandemic enforcement policy allowing mental health app developers to release certain treatment products without seeking authorization from the agency. With the end of the official public health emergency, companies that did so will now need to submit the products for FDA clearance and have them pass an early stage of review by early November — or remove the products from the market.

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Regardless of Age and Season, Patients Should be Screened for a Range of Respiratory Viruses

Drug Topics

Patients should be screened regardless of age, gender, or time of year.

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UnitedHealth extends its hot streak as the most profitable payer in Q1

Fierce Healthcare

UnitedHealth extends its hot streak as the most profitable payer in Q1 pminemyer Mon, 05/08/2023 - 13:28

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ChatRx: Responsible AI Use for Clinical Pharmacists

Pharmacy Times

Pharmacists, in particular, must be cautious and deliberate in using ChatGPT to ensure that its benefits are fully realized while minimizing risk and misinformation.

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$1.7b acquisition to develop rare haematology therapy

European Pharmaceutical Review

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi ® ) has agreed to acquire CTI BioPharma for $1.7 billion, with the intention to advance an oral kinase inhibitor treatment for the rare disease myelofibrosis. Innovative therapies for rare diseases The acquisition will help to drive the growth of CTI’s lead product, kinase inhibitor VONJO ® (pacritinib) “in treating myeloproliferative disease,” stated Dr Adam Craig, President, Chief Executive Officer and Interim Chief Medical Officer of CTI BioPharma

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