Generic Prescription Drug Info

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) has published a new statement outlining appropriate criteria for a proposed intermediate category of medications that would be available from pharmacists in outpatient settings without a prescription. Drug products appropriatefor this intermediate category would have proven public healthbenefits and should be identified by processes that include the inputand [...]

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Three University of Queensland researchers have received separate grants aimed at improving the practice of community pharmacy and customer health, through better use of medicines.
The School of Pharmacy researchers will receive grants totalling close to $200,000. These are the first grants to be funded by The Pharmacists Board of Queensland.
Dr Lisa Nissen and Mr Greg [...]

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Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) President and CEO Mark Merritt released the following statement today on a new report from AARP examining the high prices of various specialty products and the need for generic biologics to lower costs for consumers.
PCMA represents the nation’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which improve affordability and quality of care through [...]

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Family nurse practitioners need to be more aware of the commercial pressures they face as a result of their increased involvement in prescribing, according to a survey published in the March issue of the UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing.
“Our detailed study of 84 family nurse practitioners (FNPs) showed low awareness of how marketing by [...]

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A doctoral thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that it is possible to describe and quantify the relationships between dose, concentration and effectiveness of several drugs against HIV/AIDS and malaria. The method may allow improved treatment and fewer undesired effects for patients with these diseases.
Registered pharmacist Daniel Röshammar has [...]

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Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) on Wednesday introduced a bill (S 525) that would allow the reimportation of lower-cost prescription drugs from other nations, Bloomberg reports. The lawmakers said that the legislation would save the U.S. $50 billion, which includes $10 billion in savings for the U.S. government, over [...]

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CDC last week sent out letters to several chain pharmacies that offer no-cost prescription antibiotics to low-income consumers urging them to promote responsible use of antibiotics, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, the agency is concerned that the no-cost drugs could promote the wrong message and might worsen the problem of drug [...]

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The NPA has told the DH Review of prescription charges for people with long term conditions that removing prescription charges would improve access to medicines for patients and decrease the administrative burden on community pharmacies. Pharmacists experience severe pressures on their time and any release of time could be used to enhance patient care.
The NPA [...]

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Two researchers from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice on Friday plan to push an FDA advisory panel to adopt a “drug fact box” labeling system for print prescription drug advertisements that quantifies the benefits and risks of taking a drug, the New York Times reports. The fact boxes would be similar [...]

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The Colorado Senate on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a bill (SB 132) that would repeal a program created to provide low-income state residents access to affordable prescription drugs, the Denver Post reports. When the Colorado Cares Rx Program was created in 2007, supporters believed it could help more than 250,000 state residents. The state [...]

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