Specialty Pharmacy

FORT WORTH, Texas — The clinical development director of Rx.com Pharmacy Benefit Coalition is among the first few dozen pharmacists to receive a specialty pharmacy certification, the company said.

NEW YORK — Forest Labs will buy privately owned drug maker Aptalis for $2.9 billion, Forest said Thursday.

Aptalis specializes in making drugs for gastrointestinal disorders and cystic fibrosis, with sales of $688 million in fiscal year 2013. More than 60% of its sales come from the ulcer treatment Carafate (sucralfate), the inflammatory bowel disease treatment Canasa (melamine) and the cystic fibrosis drug Zenpep (pancrelipase).

ALEXANDRIA, Va. —Vulnerable patients, including seniors and cancer patients, suffer from lack of access to needed painkillers as efforts to combat diversion and misuse of controlled substances often result in drugs not getting into the hands of those who need them, according to a new pharmacist survey by the National Community Pharmacists Association. 

OSAKA, Japan — Takeda Pharmaceutical has started a late-stage clinical trial program of its experimental drug for inflammatory bowel disease in Japan, the company said Wednesday.

Takeda announced the start of two phase-3 trials of MLN0002 (vedolizumab) in patients with severe ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. The trials are designed to find out the efficacy, safety and effects on the body of the drug, particularly to see if patients show a response after 10 weeks of treatment and disease remission after 60 weeks.

DENVER — A new mobile app-driven social network devoted to medical marijuana has attracted $150,000 in seed money from an investment group.

MassRoots announced Thursday that it had closed the seed investment from members of the ArcView Group. The social network, launched in July 2013, has more than 25,000 active users. MassRoots allows users to maintain their privacy and anonymity by not requiring their name, email or phone number to join.

NEW YORK — The number of new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration fell by more than 30% in 2013 compared with 2012, according to agency records.

BOSTON — The owners of the compounding pharmacy linked to a nationwide meningitis outbreak that has killed dozens and sickened hundreds have agreed to set up a fund of more than $100 million to compensate victims and creditors.

Legal firm Brown Rudnick announced that the owners of the New England Compounding Center had reached a settlement with bankruptcy trustee Paul Moore, its creditors and the victims to set up the fund, money from which will be distributed to creditors as well as victims who received injections of tainted steroids from NECC.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Food and Drug Administration has declined to approve a drug made by Genzyme Corp. for certain forms of multiple sclerosis, the company said Monday.