Licensing

BOSTON — The state health department in Massachusetts has made changes to the state's pharmacy board and leveled sanctions against three pharmacies in the wake of a nationwide meningitis outbreak traced to a compounding pharmacy in the state, the department said.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Reckitt Benckiser on Tuesday announced the appointment of Suzanne LoGalbo to the position of regulatory affairs director, Reckitt Benckiser North America.  

LoGalbo joins RB from Pfizer Consumer Health. While at Pfizer, LoGalbo most recently held the position of global regulatory portfolio lead worldwide regulatory strategy. Prior to Pfizer, Suzanne was the head of global regulatory affairs North America for Novartis Consumer Health. She has also held regulatory leadership roles at Polaris, Solvay, Arganon and Sandoz.  

The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the American College of Nurse Practitioners will merge the organizations effective in January. With approximately 40,000 members, the new organization, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, or AANP, will serve as the largest professional membership organization in the country for nurse practitioners of all specialties.

NEW YORK — A pharmacy school in Idaho has achieved a 100% pass rate on a national pharmacist-licensure examination, according to published reports.

The Idaho State Journal reported that the Idaho State University College of Pharmacy had achieved a 100% pass rate on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination, or NAPLEX, a 185-question exam that graduating pharmacy students take to test their knowledge.

The newspaper reported that the college had also achieved a 100% pass rate in 2008 and that only six of 104 pharmacy schools reported such rates in 2011.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Pharmacist’s Ultimate Health of St. Paul, Minn., and its president, Stephen J. Poindexter, have been barred from distributing any "unapproved new drugs" that the company had distributed under the guise that they were dietary supplements. 

The consent decree of permanent injunction that had been sought by the Food and Drug Administration was signed by U.S. District Judge David Doty of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on Nov. 6. 

When considering new, stiffer regulations governing the compounding of medicines in the wake of the meningitis outbreak, tread carefully and don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

That’s the message chain pharmacy had for Congress as lawmakers mull new restrictions on drug compounding by pharmacists.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — As the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives examined the meningitis outbreak this week, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores distinguished between the types of pharmacy compounding and the settings in which they take place, and emphasized the critical, life-saving benefits of pharmacy compounding.

NACDS stated that it has sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce — both of which held hearings on the outbreak on Nov. 14.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Community Pharmacists Association on Wednesday submitted comments to two congressional committees holding separate hearings examining the meningitis outbreak at the New England Compounding Center, including the the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, respectively.