Feeling lighter in the wallet?

Pharmacists’ wages are going down, it seems, although it’s worse for retail positions than for folks in hospitals. And technicians and aides? Their wages are going up.

All this comes from a new study published by APhA (by a pharmacoeconomicist out of UC San Diego) that looked at how wages were being affected by market consolidation, where fewer employers mean each has more control over wages: “In other words, the employers become the wage setters, and the employees become the wage takers.”

From 2012 to 2022…

• Retail pharmacists saw their annual wages decrease by 16.6%.
• Hospital pharmacists saw a 2.5% decrease.
• Retail technicians had their salaries increase by 3.4%.
• Hospital technicians saw a 7% increase.

ICYMI: DEA looks to make pot C-III

The DEA has started the process of moving marijuana from schedule I (with heroin and LSD) to schedule III (with codeine). No, it wouldn’t legalize pot, it would just “acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs.”

But first the new rule has to be officially proposed and reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget. If it passes OMB, it’ll be open for public comment before being dropped or finalized.

In the name of all that’s holy, don’t drink raw milk

Raw milk isn’t better, it never has been better, and these days it’s even more dangerous. Sure, pasteurization is still a new technology (it’s only been around since the 19th century), but they stopped adding the microchips back in the 1980s.

Jokes aside, the CDC says that “improperly handled raw milk is responsible for nearly three times more hospitalizations than any other food-borne disease source, making it one of the world’s most dangerous food products.”

And with bird flu in the mix? Just don’t.

“Bird Flu in Raw Cow Milk Has Killed Farm Cats in a Concerning First”

FTC challenges a whole lotta drug patents

The Federal Trade Commission has had enough of what it calls “junk patents” filed by pharma companies, and it’s challenging them — starting with a warning letter to 10 companies about 20 brand-name drugs and more than 300 patent filings.

What’s a junk patent? According to the agency, it’s a patent that really doesn’t affect the drug, but is included with the FDA filing anyway. Why? Because patents can block generic competition for up to 30 months — more patents means longer exclusivity.

These companies include Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Covis Pharma, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Teva Pharmaceuticals and Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, as well as some of their subsidiaries.

The companies will hear from the FDA next, and will have 30 days to withdraw or edit their drug’s listing or pinkie promise certify under penalty of perjury that the patents are legit.

PharmPAC at work

Check it out: GPhA/AIP member Tommy Bryan, owner of St. Simon’s Drug Company, presents a PharmPAC donation to Senator Mike Hodges (left). Senator Hodges sits on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and was a huge help getting our SB 198 to the Senate floor for a final vote. Thank you, Senator Hodges, and thank you, Tommy Bryan, for supporting PharmPAC!

You can help PharmPAC, too — invest in your practice and protect the future of pharmacy in Georgia at GPhA.org/pharmpac.

FDA expands test regulation

The FDA said it’s going to start regulating the diagnostic tests that testing companies like Labcorp and Quest have developed and are marketing to patients. These are the “lab developed tests” that claim to detect this or that, but that haven’t been formally reviewed to ensure they do what they say.

Under the new rules, these tests would be required to meet the same requirements as other diagnostic tests from medical device makers, including the FDA’s review of their applications and the reporting of adverse events.

Which brings up the obvious question: Weren’t they regulating these tests in the first place?

Medicare wins again

Pharma companies have lost yet another court challenge to drug price negotiations — that’s four losses, if you’re keeping score. This time it was Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson, and it was a U.S. district court in New Jersey.

The rulings are consistent: No one is forcing them to participate in Medicare, so they have no right to complain about capitalism at work.

The drug makers say they plan to appeal the ruling. Their argument, apparently, is that Medicare is such a large customer they are effectively forced to participate or they’ll make less of a profit. (Profit, apparently, is now a legal right.) And, of course, Medicare should be forced to accept whatever prices the companies wish to charge.

Perspective: Can you imagine if Walmart’s suppliers said the retailer was so big, it should be required to buy their products at any price they chose?

Side note: Remember, these are the companies that don’t pay taxes because they claim to be losing money.