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Specialty Pharmacy

  • Diplomat names James Kosmerick as director of marketing

    FLINT, Mich. — Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy has hired a former information technology executive as its director of marketing.

    The company announced Wednesday the appointment of James Kosmerick as director of marketing. Kosmerick was previously creative and marketing director for Bay City, Mich.-based TransIT Solutions. He also worked as an art director and designer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

  • FDA grants priority review to ViiV drug for HIV

    LONDON — The Food and Drug Administration has granted priority review to an experimental drug made by ViiV Healthcare for HIV, the company, a joint venture between British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline and American drug maker Pfizer, announced.

    The FDA gave the designation to dolutegravir, designed for use in combination with other antiretrovirual drugs in adults and adolescents. The agency gives priority review to drugs that offer significant improvement compared with products already on the market.

  • Reports: Florida House subcommittee approves biosimilar-substitution bill

    NEW YORK — A new bill in Florida's state legislature would allow pharmacists to substitute biosimilars for branded biotech drugs, according to published reports.

    The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that the Health Quality Subcommittee of the Florida House of Representatives approved a bill that would allow for substitution while requiring pharmacists to notify prescribing physicians within five days and require the doctor and pharmacist to maintain a record for at least four years.

  • Gilead voluntarily recalls one lot of injected AIDS-related infection drug

    FOSTER CITY, Calif. — Drug maker Gilead Sciences has recalled a single lot of an injected drug used to treat an opportunistic infection in AIDS patients due to the presence of foreign matter in some vials, the company said.

    Gilead announced the voluntary recall of lot B120217A of Vistide (cidofovir), an injected drug used to treat cytomegalovirus retinitis in patients with AIDS, due to particulate matter.

  • Less than half of employers have specialty prior authorization programs under medical benefits, study finds

    PLANO, Texas — Management of specialty drugs under the medical benefit continues to trail management under the pharmacy benefit, according to a new report by the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute.

  • Anthem suspends controversial Calif. mail-order specialty pharmacy policy

    NEW YORK — Anthem Blue Cross will indefinitely suspend a policy that would require many specialty pharmacy patients in California, most of them HIV patients, to receive their drugs via mail order in order to receive coverage for them, drawing criticism from patients and retail pharmacies.

  • W.Va. senators, representative introduce prescription drug abuse bill

    WASHINGTON — Two Democrats from West Virginia are sponsoring legislation in the House and Senate to combat prescription drug abuse.

  • Actavis can launch generic painkiller in May 2014 under settlement

    PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Actavis and Mallinckrodt have reached a settlement concerning the former's generic version of an opioid painkiller made by the latter, Actavis said Thursday.

    The companies settled patent lawsuit regarding Actavis' generic version of Mallinckrodt's Exalgo (hydromorphone hydrochloride) extended-release tablets in the 32-mg strength. The companies settled litigation regarding the 8-mg, 12-mg and 16-mg strengths last month.

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