Pharmacy

Sarepta Therapeutics said it will continue shipping its gene therapy Elevidys for Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients despite an FDA request to pause distribution following multiple patient deaths.  The FDA’s request July 18 came after Sarepta confirmed the death of a…

An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office warns that cuts to the National Institutes of Health and FDA drug reviews could significantly reduce the number of new medications reaching the U.S.  The report, requested by Democratic lawmakers, examined a hypothetical…

IV robotics and workflow preparation technology is critical to the advancement of patient safety and accuracy in IV compounding. But while the need is widely recognized, barriers to adoption – including tight budgets, bandwidth constraints, and lack of regulations or…

AHA has filed a legal brief in support of a Colorado law that ensures 340B discounted drugs can be delivered to contract pharmacies.  The brief comes amid a lawsuit brought by drugmaker AbbVie, which argues that Colorado’s law is preempted…

The FDA oncologic drugs advisory committee voted against the approval of GSK’s blood cancer treatment Blenrep, delivering a setback to the drugmaker’s efforts to reintroduce the drug to the U.S. market, The Wall Street Journal reported July 17.  The FDA’s…

340B Health is raising objections to new Medicare payment proposals from CMS, which includes deeper cuts to outpatient payments and the possibility of future drug reimbursement reductions.  Under the newly released 2026 outpatient rule, CMS said it plans to accelerate…

Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb have launched a direct-to-patient program offering their blood thinner Eliquis at a 40% discount for cash-paying patients.  The list price for Eliquis (apixaban) is $606 for a 30-day supply, but through the new program, the…

Prescription denial rates from private insurers grew from 18.3% in 2016 to 22.9% in 2023 — a 25% increase, according to a July 18 article from The New York Times.  Healthcare analytics company Komodo Health conducted an analysis of more…

A third patient has died from acute liver failure after receiving a gene therapy treatment from Sarepta Therapeutics, the biotech company confirmed to Bloomberg on July 18.  The patient died while receiving Elevidys, a gene therapy treatment approved to treat…

Hospital pharmacists are urging Congress to act on a number of their priorities, including Medicare coverage for pharmacist services and protections for residency funding.  In a July 9 letter, Tom Kraus, vice president for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists,…