Specialty Pharmacy

FRISCO, Texas — Assured Pharmacy officially has opened the doors of its Kansas City location, making it the company's fifth specialty pharmacy.

The Kansas City pharmacy employs staff specifically trained to work with physicians' offices in the surrounding region to ensure that the prescription process for pain medications is handled in the ideal manner, the company said.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark has announced the appointment of Randy Falkenrath as SVP specialty pharmacy, with responsibility for the ongoing development of clinical programs and product management to support the company's specialty pharmacy business.

NEW YORK — Record-breaking attendance, a high-profile keynote speaker, four engaging panel discussions on some of the hottest issues facing the industry and exclusive consumer videos set the stage for the 13th annual Drug Store News Industry Issues Summit held on Tuesday in New York.

NEW YORK and PRINCETON, N.J. — A drug designed to prevent stroke and systemic embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation has been accepted for review by the Food and Drug Administration.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer said their investigational compound Eliquis (apixaban) was accepted for review and granted a priority-review designation. The companies submitted the application to the agency after completing two phase-3 trials, which examined the efficacy and safety of Eliquis among about 24,000 patients.

RALEIGH, N.C. — MedPro Rx president Nancy McFarlane won a Stevie Award for Best Entrepreneur, the specialty pharmacy provider said.

McFarlane won the award for the category of service businesses with up to 100 employers in the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, having led the company to multimillion-dollar sales over the past nine years, the company said. McFarlane founded the company in 2002.

LEXINGTON, Mass. — British drug maker Shire is looking to make a biotech drug for a rare genetic disorder at a new manufacturing plant in Massachusetts.

The company said Tuesday that it had filed with the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for approval to produce the Gaucher disease drug Vpriv (velaglucerase alfa) at its Lexington, Mass., plant. The company expects to win approval to make the drug there early next year.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy announced that it now is allowing physicians to electronically submit prescriptions to its pharmacies.

BioPlus said its e-prescribing offering is designed to lessen the risk of errors, lower costs and improve compliance. The use of computerized medication order entry potentially could prevent up to 84% of dose, frequency and route errors in medication use, according to data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,a Department of Health and Human Services agency.

NEW YORK — Pfizer will acquire a San Diego-based drug maker focused on treatments for skin scarring, the company said Tuesday.

Pfizer said it would buy privately owned Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, whose lead product, EXC 001, is in phase-2 trials for skin scarring, also known as skin fibrosis, a result of surgical procedures. There currently are no Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments to reduce scar severity. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.