News
Pharmacy Wholesalers Allegedly Sent over 12 Million Opioid Doses to a Single West Virginia Pharmacy
West Virginia has been hit hard by the opioid crisis and data shows the death rate from opioids in 2016 was 52 victims for every 100,000 residents. New House of Energy and Commerce Committee documents allege that between 2006-2014 pharmacy wholesalers McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health and others shipped over 12 million doses of opioids…
Read MoreDEA Helps Distributors Avoid Oversupplying Opioids
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) continues to work with its over 1.7 million registrants to combat the United States opioid epidemic and recently added a new feature to the ARCOS Online Reporting System that will assist drug manufacturers and distributors comply with their regulatory obligations under the Controlled Substances Act. Under current DEA regulations, distributors…
Read MoreAG Sessions Announces DEA Surge to Combat Prescription Drug Diversion
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced this week that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will surge Special Agents, Diversion Investigators and Intelligence Research Specialists over the next 45 days to focus on pharmacies and prescribers who are dispensing unusual or disproportionate amounts of controlled substances. The DEA plans to analyze the data from 80 million transaction…
Read MoreNew Nebraska Law Requires All Prescription Drugs to be Reported to PDMP
On January 1, 2018, Nebraska became the first state to require all dispensers to report all prescription drugs dispensed for an enhanced medication history, as required by Neb. Rev. Stat. 71-2454(2). The Nebraska Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) is a statewide tool for prescribers and dispensers that collects dispensed prescription information and serves as a…
Read MoreRural Colorado County Sues Top Pharmaceutical Companies and Distributors over Opioid Crisis
Huerfano County, a rural southern Colorado county, filed suit in federal court against the nation’s top pharmaceutical companies and drug manufacturers and distributors claiming that the companies are responsible for overdoes and death due to opioids. The lawsuit claims that Huerfano County residents were falsely induced to take highly addictive opioids for pain management and…
Read MoreNorth Carolina STOP Act Looks to Address the Opioid Crisis
North Carolina’s Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention Act (STOP Act) sets limits on certain ‘targeted controlled substance” prescriptions for acute and post surgical pain and seeks to address the opioid abuse epidemic in North Carolina by changing the way certain controlled substances are prescribed. According the the STOP Act, practitioners, including physician assistants and nurse practitioners,…
Read MorePatient Choice of Pharmacy Bill Introduced in the Colorado Legislature
House Bill 18-1097 (HB 1097), also referred to as the Patient Choice of Pharmacy, is a bipartisan sponsored bill that focuses primarily on patient choices when filling prescription medications and is aimed at protecting small, rural pharmacies that may be closer to patients. HB 1097, in its current form, states that an insurance carrier or…
Read MoreWill Pharmacists be able to Test for the Flu?
With flu cases reportedly quadrupling this year as compared to 2017, Florida lawmakers proposed a bill that would give Florida pharmacists the ability to perform the rapid flu test and have a diagnosis in approximately 15 minutes. Florida House Bill 431, if passed, would take some of the burden off doctors as patients who suspect…
Read MoreFDA Revises Labeling to Limit Pediatric Use of Opioid Cough and Cold Medicines
Today, the FDA announced that it is requiring safety labeling changes to limit the use of prescription opioid cough and cold medicines containing codeine or hydrocodone in children younger than 18 years old. Once the labeling changes are made, these products will not be indicated to treat cough in any pediatric population and will be…
Read MoreDistribution of Compounded Prescription Drugs for Animal Use into Colorado
In late 2017, the Colorado Board of Pharmacy (Board) sent notice to all facilities registered with the Board as nonresident pharmacies. The notification addressed the distribution of medications into Colorado. The notification states, in part, the following: “Colorado law and Board rule (CRS 12-42.5-118.5 and Board Rules 21.00.20(d)) allow a nonresident pharmacy (“Pharmacy”) to distribute…
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