Diabetes

WASHINGTON — The Medicare Fraud Strike Force on Thursday charged 111 defendants in nine cities — including doctors, nurses and healthcare company owners and executives — for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving more than $225 million in false billing. The operation marks the largest federal healthcare-fraud takedown.

WASHINGTON — February is American Heart Month, and a professional group representing the country’s pharmacists is using that as an opportunity to encourage the public to learn how to prevent heart disease from the most easily accessible members of the healthcare system.

ALLEGAN, Mich. — Perrigo on Thursday announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with AgaMatrix to sell and distribute blood-glucose monitors and test strips in the U.S. store-brand channel.

Nipro Diagnostics long has dominated store-brand blood-glucose meters with a co-branding program that includes TRUE2Go, TRUEresult and TRUEtrack.

As part of the agreement, Perrigo will sell and distribute certain products in the current AgaMatrix portfolio, as well as certain future new products.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

NEW YORK — The National Basketball Association, the Women's National Basketball Association and the NBA Development League are at the forefront of a new campaign that seeks to raise awareness about diabetes prevention.

CINCINNATI — HealthWarehouse.com on Tuesday announced that it has consummated two separate transactions to acquire all the online assets of Hocks Pharmacy, an online reseller of over-the-counter medications, diabetic supplies and medical equipment. HealthWarehouse.com also will merge with a newly formed subsidiary of Hocks Pharmacy.

CHICAGO — Individuals who have higher blood-glucose levels and poorer control of those levels over time appear more likely to develop eye-related complications 10 years later, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Ophthalmology published Monday.

PHILADELPHIA — GlaxoSmithKline has changed prescribing information on the labeling for one of its Type 2 diabetes drugs to reflect new restrictions on the drug’s use, the drug maker said.

GSK said it revised the labeling for Avandia (rosiglitazone) to take into account the risks of heart attacks and heart failure in patients taking the drug.

The FDA moved to restrict access to Avandia last year and required GSK to create a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy for the drug.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche, reported that its eye drug helped improve vision in patients suffering from a complication caused by diabetes.

In its phase-3 RISE study, Genentech said diabetic macular edema patients that received monthly Lucentis (ranibizumab injection) achieved an improvement in vision at 24 months, compared with placebo.