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DUBLIN — Adapt Pharma on Monday announced the appointment of Mike Kelly to be president of its U.S. operations. Kelly will report to the company’s COO Eunan Maguire. 

 

Kelly has been in the industry for almost 30 years, and joins Adapt Pharma— maker of Narcan Nasal Spray (naloxone HCl) — from Covis Pharmaceuticals, where he was CEO and a member of its board. Before joining Covis, Kelly was a founding member of Azur Pharma and then SVP sales and marketing for Jazz Pharmaceuticals following a merger. 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Regulations that allow pharmacists to directly provide prescription contraceptives to patients took effect April 8. Besides allowing pharmacists to provide hormonal contraceptives, the legislation also allows them to furnish prescription smoking cessation services, travel medications, an expanded list of immunizations. The legislation also create an Advanced Practice Pharmacist license. 

 

DEERFIELD, Ill. - Walgreens on Monday announced it has made naloxone available without requiring a prescription from an individual’s physician in all of its Pennsylvania pharmacies in accordance with state pharmacy regulations.

 

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a new treatment from AbbVie for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The drug, Venclexta (venetoclax) is the first drug to gain FDA approval that targets a protein that supports cancer cell growth and is overexpressed in many CLL patients, about 15,000 of whom are diagnosed every year. 

 

WASHINGTON – In their ongoing commitment to protect TRICARE beneficiaries’ access to prescription medications, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association sent letters last week to the chairmen and ranking members of the House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee urging them to protect TRICARE beneficiary access by refusing to further increase retail community pharmacist copayments. 

NEW YORK - Pfizer on Wednesday announced that the merger agreement between Pfizer and Allergan has been terminated by mutual agreement of the companies. The decision was driven by the actions announced by the U.S. Department of Treasury on April 4, 2016, which the companies concluded qualified as an “Adverse Tax Law Change” under the merger agreement.

 

CHICAGO - The Female Health Company on Wednesday announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Aspen Park Pharmaceuticals, a privately held company focused on the development and commercialization of oncology and men’s and women’s health therapeutics and consumer health products. 

 

NEW YORK - The United States Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Celltrion’s Inflectra (biosimilar infliximab) across all eligible indications of the reference product, Remicade (infliximab). Inflectra is now the first and only biosimilar monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy, and only the second biosimilar, to be approved in the U.S.