Category Archives: Pharmacy

Q: Mirapex is a medicine prescribed for Parkinson's disease and restless leg syndrome. I read online that this medication can promote compulsive behaviors such as shopping, porn, sex, gambling and eating. Some of these compulsions have resulted in divorce or bankruptcy. I myself developed a compulsion for buying trinkets on eBay, to the tune of $10,000 on my credit card. Warn people that if a new compulsion crops up, they should check with the pharmacist or doctor to find out if it could be caused by medication. A: Most people can't imagine that a drug could cause someone to go on a shopping binge or engage in behavior such as compulsive eating or sex. Nevertheless, this has been documented as a side effect of medicines such as Mirapex and Requip. The official prescribing information for such drugs notes that patients and their families should be warned about the possibility of intense, uncontrollable urges. Q: Ambien frightens me. I have seen two people very close to me do crazy things while on the drug and then go back to sleep and not remember what they did. My mother found herself in her nightgown, standing in a line at Subway, ordering a … Continue reading →

05-10-2012 13:28 MBN officials talk about where they think drugs stolen from a Jackson pharmacy could show up. Read the original here: Where could drugs stolen from pharmacy end up? - Video … Continue reading →

Compounding pharmacies started as small mom-and-pop stores that mixed hard-to-find medications for local doctors and their patients who had allergies, difficulty swallowing, or otherwise could not take mass-produced drugs. But amid growing drug shortages in the pharmaceutical industry, some large compounders such as the New England Compounding Center stepped in and expanded their business far beyond the industrys homespun roots. The Framingham company, whose products are implicated in a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis that sickened more people Friday, listed dozens of products online and apparently took thousands of orders from doctors, clinics, and hospitals in at least 23 states, a transformation that regulators have not kept pace with, critics and even some industry executives said. A question still has to be answered: Who the heck at the government level was asleep at the switch? said David G. Miller, executive vice president of the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists. The outbreak starkly illustrates the yawning gap in oversight, said Allen Vaida, executive vice president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a Pennsylvania-based advocacy and research organization. The US Food and Drug Administration is supposed to regulate compounding companies that ship their products to many providers, a practice known as … Continue reading →

04-10-2012 14:05 Most cases in the deadly meningitis outbreak are centered at a Tennessee hospital, but the source of the illness may be a pharmacy in Framingham, Mass. Lauren Lemancyzk reports. Read more: Meningitis outbreak linked to Mass. pharmacy - Video … Continue reading →

WEST CHESTER, Ohio - About 200 full-time jobs are coming to the Tri-State over a three-month period after a pharmacy services expansion. RightSource , Humanas mail order pharmacy service, is hiring for 200 positions at its West Chester distribution center and Springdale offices. Positions that need to be filled include pharmacist, pharmacy technicians, inventory management and shipping and packaging. As weve grown our capacity to serve our members with mail order pharmacy services, Greater Cincinnati has proven to be an ideal place to expand our operations, General Manager Operations for RightSource in Ohio, Alan Martin said in a news release. This area is blessed with a large number of nearby pharmacy schools and well-educated workforce that has allowed us to build a world-class customer service operation. Humana has grown its work force in the area over the last five years with three major local employment opportunities. By 2013, Humana will have grown from less than 800 employees at one location to about 2,200 employees at three locations across the Tri-State. To apply for one of the 200 full-time positions, go to http://careers.humana.com/ . Also, RightSource is hosting a job fair for pharmacy tech and pharmacist positions on Oct. 9 from … Continue reading →

An internet pharmacist from Manitoba has pleaded guilty in Florida for his role in a scheme to defraud American customers buying medications online. Andrew Strempler has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with his role as owner and president of Mediplan Health Consulting Inc., a Canadian company, that also operated under the name RxNorth.com. RxNorth was an Internet, mail and telephone order pharmacy, through which Strempler and others marketed and sold prescription drugs to residents of the United States. He faces up to five years in prison, a forfeiture of $300,000, a fine, and restitution. Strempler, one of the first entrepreneurs in the cross-border online pharmacy industry, was arrested in Florida in June on two counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. A judge denied him bail at the time, saying Strempler was too much of a flight risk. The judge noted Strempler sold his home in Florida a few years ago and had not returned to the U.S. since learning he was under investigation. The charges relate to a 2005 seizure of drugs shipped by Mediplan. The FDA said many of the drugs promoted online as Canadian actually came from … Continue reading →

The Framingham specialty pharmacy linked to a nationwide meningitis outbreak that has claimed five lives was under the spotlight of a Bay State licensing board as far back as 2002 after complaints over its sterilization procedures, state health officials revealed yesterday. The New England Compounding Center is now at the center of a growing health calamity after Food and Drug Administration officials said investigators this week found contamination in a sealed vial of the firms preservative-free steroid methylprednisolone acetate the same injectable medication given to 35 people in six states who contracted the rare form of fungal meningitis. At the urging of federal officials, the company last week recalled three lots of the steroid used to treat back and joint pain shipped since July to 23 states, including Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut. None of the recalled product was distributed in Massachusetts, but nine clinics have received other batches of the same steroid, officials said. All nine facilities were contacted by DPH today to quarantine that product as a precaution, said Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, head of the state Department of Public Healths Bureau of Healthcare Safety. Ilsa Bernstein of the FDA said out of an abundance of caution the … Continue reading →

MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Navitus Health Solutions, LLC, a national, full pass-through pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), announces the successful implementation of a PBM program for the Texas Association of Community Based Health Plans (TACHP), a group of managed Medicaid and CHIP plans in Texas. This partnership began in March 2012 and is under a 5-year contract. Comprised of the following health plans under the Navitus pharmacy benefit, TACHP supports more than 1.3 million Medicaid members in Texas: The TACHP confirmed that the implementation and first seven months of pharmacy benefit services have been extremely well-executed for the health plans and plan participants. Driscolls carve-in of pharmacy benefit services with Navitus has gone remarkably well. I continue to hear praise from the other health plans in Texas that Navitus is the best PBM theyve worked with, said Mary Dale Peterson, MD, CEO of Driscoll Childrens Health Plan. Navitus has made a commitment to Driscoll and the Texas plans by opening an office in Texas, attending TACHP meetings in person, and addressing the needs of the individual health plans. Navitus provides the TACHP a full suite of PBM services, including claims adjudication, pharmacy network management, clinical programs/consultation, analytical support, and mail and specialty … Continue reading →

04-10-2012 05:44 A deadly meningitis outbreak may be linked to a Framingham pharmacy. The rest is here: Meningitis scare linked to local pharmacy - Video … Continue reading →

Esmeralda Downs life changed 15 years ago when she answered Bill and Ann Pearsons ad for a pharmacy technician. In addition to hiring her, the Pearsons paid for her education at Western University of Health Sciences, where she earned a PharmD degree in 2012. They also paid for community college tuition, a class at CSUSB, health insurance, and a gas card so she could commute to college. Esmeralda calls the Pearsons her guardian angels. Its very seldom you find people like this, Esmeralda said. Ive had a hard time in my life, and I could not have done it without them. Bill and Ann met at the USC School of Pharmacy, and both graduated in 1967. Bill went to work for Redlands Community Hospital, and Ann worked at an independent pharmacy in San Bernardino that the couple later bought, then sold. Bill said that his fathers story of being accepted into Stanford University during the Depression motivated him to help people get through college. If you have somebody who has the ability, youve got to help them get there, Bill said. Before becoming a pharmacy technician, Esmeralda had been a forklift driver and a bus driver. She needed to change … Continue reading →