Licensing

TORONTO — Easton Pharmaceuticals on Thursday announced it is speeding up negotiations with an Ontario-based company toward forming a possible investment/partnership toward their medical marijuana initiatives, which includes participating in their government application for both a growers and distributorship license in Canada and other possible international initiatives. 

NEW YORK — Pharmacists in Illinois are pushing for the state to let them run medical marijuana dispensaries, according to published reports.

The Chicago Tribune reported that pharmacists are trying to get the state to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II controlled substance. Currently, the Drug Enforcement Administration classifies it as Schedule I, making it illegal in all circumstances at the federal level; the proposed rescheduling would mean it was legal for medical use, but still tightly regulated, similar to opioid painkillers.

NEW YORK — New York state has begun to legalize medical use of marijuana, albeit in limited form, according to published reports.

Currently, 20 states and the District of Columbia allow the dispensing of marijuana for medical use, two of which — Colorado and Washington — have legalized recreational use, while Maryland allows medical use as a legal defense in criminal cases.

FORT WORTH, Texas — The clinical development director of Rx.com Pharmacy Benefit Coalition is among the first few dozen pharmacists to receive a specialty pharmacy certification, the company said.

WASHINGTON — Serious discussion about the possibility of officially granting healthcare provider status to pharmacists is among the achievements that a pharmacy professional group cited as it welcomed the new year.

One reason pain patient advocates are so passionate about what they do is because they are pain patients themselves — they know the stigma associated with chronic pain; they know how difficult it can be to access appropriate pain therapy sometimes.

DUBLIN — A subsidiary of Actavis has reached a settlement with a generic drug maker that will allow the launch of a generic version of a treatment for ulcerative colitis in 2015.

Actavis said its Warner Chilcott subsidiary had settled with Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA and Cadila Healthcare over Zydus' generic version of Asacol HD (mesalamine) delayed-release tablets.

NEW YORK — Compounding pharmacies that produce sterile drugs can register as outsourcing facilities and may be exempt from certain Food and Drug Administration approval requirements, according to a document published on the FDA's website.