Regulatory and Washington

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Two groups representing the retail pharmacy industry are urging the federal government to provide guidance to the states on how to adjust Medicaid dispensing fees to determine pharmacy reimbursement.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Several Congress leaders last week penned a letter to the Department of Defense's Director of Tricare Management Activity warning of potential cost increases should the proposed merger between pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and Medco Health clear regulatory hurdles.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug made by Pfizer for treating advanced kidney cancer, the agency said Friday.

The FDA announced the approval of Inlyta (axitinib) for patients with advanced kidney cancer, also known as renal cell carcinoma, who have not responded to another drug for the disease. The drug, a twice-daily pill, works by blocking certain proteins called kinases that are involved with tumor growth and disease progression.

WASHINGTON — The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday published an op-ed online that called for more rule-making to govern dietary supplements in an effort to rein in the criminal activity of illicit prescription drug manufacturers that openly disregard the laws currently in effect.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Watson Pharmaceuticals and Mallinckrodt have reached a settlement concerning a painkiller for which the former had sought Food and Drug Administration approval.

GLENVIEW, Ill. — Mead Johnson Nutrition CEO Stephen Golsby on Thursday announced that the company will be deploying a significant ad campaign to recapture any lost trust among moms because of an Enfamil "pull-and-hold" in December.

Retailers had pulled the product off their shelves out of an abundance of caution — the product had been consumed in the days prior to a child's death — but both the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later vetted Enfamil from having any link to that tragedy.

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation is moving forward with a campaign that seeks to show the role the retail industry plays in powering economic growth and job creation, and engages business, political, industry and civic leaders in a conversation about the retail industry’s public policy priorities.

NEW YORK — Pharmacists in Florida are hoping to expand the kinds of vaccinations they can administer, according to published reports.

Tallahassee, Fla., CBS affiliate WTSP reported that a bill proposed in the state legislature would allow pharmacists to administer shots to prevent pneumonia and shingles. While pharmacists in Florida have been able to administer flu shots since 2007, the state remains one of the few where they can't administer pneumonia and shingles shots.

A committee in the state House of Representatives voted in favor of the bill, WTSP reported.