Akorn Operating Co., a Gurnee, Ill.-based drugmaker that shut down in late February after years of manufacturing violations and dwindling finances, settled for $7.9 million in a lawsuit involving Medicare false claim allegations. 

Independent pharmacies across the country have stopped stocking diabetes drug Ozempic, a popular off-label weight loss aid, but not because of the ongoing shortages, NBC News reported March 2.

The FDA recently greenlit an Irish devicemaker's request to market its Pill Sense System, an ingestible capsule that winds its way through a patient's gastrointestinal tract, detects light wavelengths and wirelessly transmits data. 

After Gurnee, Ill.-based Akorn Operating Co. closed its operations in late February, hospitals are left with only one domestic supplier of liquid albuterol, an asthma treatment already in shortage. 

Effective immediately, Eli Lilly is capping out-of-pocket costs on its insulin products at $35 a month. The price cap automatically applies to people with private insurance. Uninsured individuals who sign up for Eli Lilly's insulin value savings program are also eligible. 

Here are six statistics about health system pharmacy technicians, according to survey data the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board collected in May. 

OptumRx, a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary, is eyeing four new drugs this year:

A service launched by University of Florida Health in Gainesville is designed to assist patients in interpreting pharmacogenetic test results.

A little over a year since the online pharmacy launched in January 2022, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. has served 2 million customers. 

Billy Dunn, MD, director of the FDA's neuroscience division, left the agency on Feb. 27. Dr. Dunn was part of the cohort that defended Aduhelm, an Alzheimer's drug whose approval has been highly criticized. 

Pfizer said March 13 it will acquire Seagen, a cancer therapeutics company, for $43 billion.

A group of physicians that promoted ivermectin as a COVID-19 medication, which was disregarded, is now touting the drug as a treatment for influenza and respiratory syncytial virus despite a lack of evidence, The Washington Post reported Feb. 26. 

Pharmacist Lauren Kirkpatrick, PharmD, was in an airport about to fly to San Francisco when she heard someone a few gates away yell, "Does anyone know CPR?" the Commercial-News reported Feb. 25. 

The Biden administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration said physicians will no longer be able to prescribe some medications via telehealth without meeting the patient in person first, CBS News reported Feb. 27.

There's a nationwide shortage of diabetes management drug Ozempic, but some cities far outpace the rest when it comes to how many prescriptions of the drug are being written.

Moderna has paid the National Institutes of Health $400 million in licensing fees for a chemical technique developed by federal researchers that was used to create its COVID-19 vaccine, the company said in a Feb. 23 earnings report.

Here's how five of the biggest pharmaceutical companies did financially in 2022:

Months into a shortage of Ozempic — a popular drug for its off-label weight-loss use — diabetes patients are rationing the product, The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 22. 

Moderna and Life Edit Therapeutics are combining resources to develop new in vivo mRNA gene editing therapies in an effort to treat — and possibly cure — rare genetic diseases.

A Gurnee, Ill.-based drugmaker is shuttering all U.S. operations, the company told its hundreds of employees during a Feb. 22 Zoom meeting.