Diabetes

WASHINGTON — CVS Caremark's chief healthcare strategy officer on Tuesday outlined how the company's integrated pharmacy-based program for such chronic diseases as diabetes, called Pharmacy Advisor, increased medication adherence rates and physician initiation of prescriptions for concomitant medications to improve patient health.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — A CVS Caremark study found that the company's integrated pharmacy-based program — Pharmacy Advisor — increased medication adherence rates and physician initiation of prescriptions for concomitant medications, improving care for diabetes patients and resulting in savings for health plans, the company announced on Monday.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Diabetes Association has announced its officers and board of directors for 2012.

This year's board includes:

• Board chairman L. Hunter Limbaugh, who serves as southeastern counsel of the Wine Institute in Columbia, S.C.;

• Healthcare and education president Geralyn Spollett, who is the associate director of the Yale Diabetes Center and adult nurse practitioner, endocrine at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.;

ALLEGAN, Mich. — Drug maker Perrigo is buying a privately owned distributor of diabetes products, the company said Monday.

Perrigo announced the $36 million acquisition of Alpharetta, Ga.-based CanAm Care, whose assets include Dex4 hypoglycemia products, insulin delivery syringes and pen needles, lancing, wound care and compression stockings.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Many patients that are at risk of Type 2 diabetes don't believe they require lifestyle counseling to help them curb their chance of developing the disease, according to new research published in the journal Diabetes Care.

PITTSBURGH — Generic drug maker Mylan is challenging the patent on a drug used to treat diabetes, the company said Monday.

Mylan said that it was sued by Takeda Pharmaceutical, Watson Pharmaceuticals and Andrx Labs in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in response to Mylan's filing a regulatory approval application with the Food and Drug Administration for a generic version of Actoplus Met XR (pioglitazone hydrochloride and metformin hydrochloride) extended-release tablets in the 15-mg/1,000-mg and 30-mg/1,000-mg strengths.

MINNEAPOLIS — Medtronic has launched a blood-glucose monitor that allows remote monitoring of blood-glucose levels, the company said.

The Minneapolis-based device maker announced the Food and Drug Administration approval and launch of the mySentry remote glucose monitor, which allows a parent or caregiver to monitor a patient's blood-sugar levels from another room by communicating with the MiniMed Paradigm Real-Time Revel glucose-monitoring system.

WASHINGTON — A joint program of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a new chairman.

John Buse of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine was appointed chair of the National Diabetes Education Program for a two-year term on Jan. 1. Buse succeeds Martha Funnell, who is a researcher at the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, as well as co-director of the Behavioral, Clinical, and Health Systems Intervention Research Core at the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center.