Foundation distributes Hurricane Michael relief checks

Scott Hartzog of Seminole Hartzog Pharmacy and Susan Mills of Roberts Pharmacy — both in Donalsonville — were the first pharmacists to receive relief checks from the Georgia Pharmacy Foundation to help them recover from Hurricane Michael.

Read the story from GPhA’s Rhonda Bonner here, and here she is presenting them with the checks:

Pharmaceuticals, assemble!

Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are combining to create an “over-the-counter drug giant.” Both companies have been trying to get rid of their consumer-drug businesses, so their solution is a new company that’s 68 percent Glaxo and 32 percent Pfizer (Glaxzer? Pfaxo?).

Mike Crooks named to foundation board

The headline says it all: The Georgia Pharmacy Foundation named Mike Crooks of Marietta to fill a vacant seat on its board.

Mike works for Alliant Quality and thus with Georgia Medicare and CMS, making his interest in serving on the board “an opportunity too good to be true” — so said foundation chair Jim Bartling. Mike will hold the seat until 2020, when the foundation has its next board elections.

…and a side order of Narcan

An FDA advisory committee has a simple idea: Give patients prescriptions for naloxone when they get prescriptions for opioids.

The downside: cost.

“I think co-prescribing is an expensive way to saturate the population with naloxone. The at-risk population is not necessarily the ones that are being prescribed new narcotics,” Mary Ellen McCann, associate professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, who voted against the decision, said.

“I’m concerned about a person going in with a broken arm and ending up with $30 of a codeine product and a (naloxone) autoinjector at $4,000 plus.”

No one could have seen this coming

Teens who vape are getting hooked on nicotine. Who knew it was so addictive?

So. Much. Urging.

“Judge urges CVS, Aetna not to integrate operations just yet”

“Pharmacist Groups Urge Federal Judge to Stop CVS-Aetna Merger”

“CVS Urges Judge Not to Halt Integration of Aetna”

The pot heard ’round the world

Novartis is teaming up with Canadian marijuana producer Tilray to distribute medical cannabis products around the world.

Will the FDA shut down with the government?

In case you’re wondering, yes, if Donald Trump shuts down the government over border-wall funding, it will affect the FDA. But not completely because much of the department is funded by user fees, not the government.

“The FDA would continue specific activities within the scope of its user fee funded programs, including those for prescription drugs, generic drugs, biosimilars, medical devices, animal drugs, and tobacco products,” according to the agency.

However:

FDA would be unable to support some routine regulatory and compliance activities. This includes some medical product, animal drug, and food related activities. FDA will also pause routine establishment inspections, cosmetics and nutrition work, and many ongoing research activities.