CMS has reached agreements with drug manufacturers to provide gene therapies to treat sickle cell disease to Medicaid recipients under a new outcomes-based model.  A total of 33 states, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have joined a…

The FDA is reevaluating GlaxoSmithKline’s blood cancer drug Blenrep following mixed results from two phase 3 trials and mounting concerns about eye-related side effects and dosing.  The agency is meeting with its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee July 17 to discuss…

Weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro may help reverse low testosterone levels in men with obesity or Type 2 diabetes, according to research presented at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, NBC News reported July 14. Researchers…

A federal court in Missouri has dismissed a legal challenge by drugmaker AbbVie to the state’s new 340B contract pharmacy law, which aims to regulate how pharmaceutical companies interact with contract pharmacies.  The order, filed July 11 in the U.S.…

California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would ease some of the nation’s strictest pharmacy staffing limits, allowing pharmacists to supervise more technicians at once.  Under Assembly Bill 1503, pharmacists would be permitted to oversee up to three pharmacy technicians,…

Advocate Christ Medical Center has opened a retail pharmacy at its Oak Lawn (Ill.) campus, to provide on-site access to prescription and over the counter medications for patients, staff and local residents, Southwest Regional Publishing reported July 14.  The pharmacy,…

Nostrum Laboratories has shut down operations and issued a voluntary nationwide recall of its Sucralfate-brand tablets, a medication commonly used to treat and prevent ulcers in the digestive tract.  The recall affects all lots of the drug still within expiry…

AstraZeneca’s drug candidate baxdrostat lowered systolic blood pressure in a phase 3 clinical  trial involving patients with uncontrolled or treatment-resistant hypertension.  In the trial, patients who received either 1 mg or 2 mg of baxdrostat once daily had a greater…

The FDA published a database containing more than 200 letters to pharmaceutical companies detailing why the agency initially refused to approve their products, The New York Times reported July 10.  FDA officials described the move as a form of “radical…

Here are six new drug shortages and discontinuations, according to drug supply databases from the FDA.