Specialty Pharmacy

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug for rheumatoid arthritis ahead of the day the agency was scheduled to decide whether or not to approve it, the agency said Tuesday.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Thursday announced plans to introduce legislation that would strengthen federal regulations of compounding pharmacies. The legislation is borne out of the recent meningitis outbreak linked to the New England Compounding Center, which is located in Markey's district, that has drawn much criticism on how regulators oversee compounding pharmacies.

FARMINGTON, Conn. – The global market for treatments for neurodegenerative disorders will exceed $20 billion before the end of the decade, according to a new report.

Global Information announced the availability of four research reports that analyze the global markets for treatments for syndromes of progressive ataxia and weakness disorders. According to GII, the global market for treatments was nearly $14 billion and is expected to reach $23.5 billion by 2017, after increasing at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 9.4%.

DUBLIN, Ohio — Cardinal Health Specialty Solutions on Wednesday announced that its specialty pharmacy, OncoSourceRx, has been awarded Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation from URAC, a Washington-based healthcare accrediting organization that establishes quality standards for the healthcare industry.

MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. — About 97% of online pharmacies are "rogue" operations operating outside U.S. laws and regulations, according to a new report.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved what it called the second new drug in two months for a form of leukemia, the agency said Friday.

The FDA announced the approval of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' Synribo (omacetaxine mepesuccinate) for chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, a disease that the National Institutes of Health expects will be diagnosed in more than 5,400 people this year. The drug is intended for patients whose disease has progressed after treatment with at least two drugs of a class used to treat the disease.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The leader of pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics will be the keynote speaker at a specialty pharmacy conference Thursday.

Prime said president and CEO Eric Elliott would deliver the keynote speech, titled "Specialty Pharmacy Benefit - The Employer's Perspective" at the first annual Therigy Specialty Pharmacy Leadership Congress in Orlando, Fla.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has declined to approve a drug developed by United Therapeutics Corp. for treating a potentially lethal high blood pressure condition.

The drug maker said it received a complete response letter from the agency for its application for a tablet formulation of the drug treprostinil. The company already markets the drug in injectable and inhaled formulations for pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH, a condition that causes high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs.