Specialty Pharmacy

RARITAN, N.J. — The Food and Drug Administration has given a special designation to a cancer drug under development by Johnson & Johnson and Pharmacyclics, the companies said.

J&J subsidiary Janssen Research & Development and Pharmacyclics announced that the FDA had given breakthrough therapy designations to the experimental drug ibrutinib as a standalone therapy for relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma in patients who have received prior therapy and for Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia.

WASHINGTON — Some people liked President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night, and some people didn't, and the response from the drug industry was no less mixed.

The Generic Pharmaceutical Association called for measures to lower healthcare costs, including ensuring that generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars reach patients' hands quickly and also avoiding measures intended to provide savings that the GPhA said would raise prescription drug costs, though the grow didn't specify what those measures were.

WASHINGTON — More than seven dozen members of the House of Representatives are urging the U.S. Postal Service to continue delivering medications to all Americans six days a week.

NEW YORK — Sanofi US was named corporate partner of the year by the Colon Cancer Challenge Foundation (CCCF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing colorectal cancer incidence and death throughout the United States, and presented with CCCF's annual Blue Star Corporate Award.

MCLEAN, Va. — Unexpected toxicities from prescription drugs that emerge years after regulatory approval may be due to poor medication adherence in clinical trials, according to a new study.

While much attention on medication adherence has focused on patients not taking the already approved drugs prescribed to them or not taking them properly, the new study, released Tuesday by Consumer Health Information, found problems with adherence in clinical trials as well.

WASHINGTON — Massachusetts and New Jersey lately have been cracking down on sterile compounding pharmacies alleged to violate safety regulations, but the crackdown may soon go nationwide, predicted a legal firm focused on the matter.

LeClairRyan attorney Michael Ruggio said officials in several states were increasing scrutiny of compounding pharmacies in the wake of an outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to the New England Compounding Center, which so far sickened 696 people and killed 45, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Home nutrition support team interventions improved patient care and potentially prevented an estimated 429 hospital days over a three-month period, at a cost savings of more than $850,000, according to new data presented by Walgreens Infusion Services at the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Clinical Nutrition Week meeting Monday in Phoenix. 

NEW YORK — Biotech drug maker Amgen plans to launch six biosimilar drugs starting in 2017, according to published reports.