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And yet, an antiviral treatment proven to lessen the chances of severe outcomes is going underused. The drug, Paxlovid, is lauded by experts as a powerful tool that can prevent hospitalization and death from COVID-19. One Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that Paxlovid can decrease hospitalization risks among adults by 51%. The study by Harvard researchers found that Paxlovid was disproportionately given to Medicare patients with lower risk of severe infection. “There are very few medications and very few patients whose potential medication interaction with Paxlovid is so severe that they’re better off not taking Paxlovid,” he said.

Persons: they’ve, ”, Amesh, Paxlovid, Kurt Proctor, Celise Ballow, Ballow, “ I’m, I’m, … I’m, ” Ballow, ’ ”, Sarah George, Michael Barnett, Robert Wood Johnson Organizations: Johns Hopkins University, Disease Control, Pfizer, National Community Pharmacists Association, St, Louis University, Harvard, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AP Locations: COVID, U.S, Junction , Utah, Paxlovid, Harvard

☆ CVS fined in Ohio for understaffing pharmacy, risking staff and patient safety
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Parija Bhatnagar | Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The investigation found that the store was seriously short staffed, pharmacy phones were not working properly and the AC unit was broken. A follow-up visit by agents revealed that the pharmacy was over a month behind in filling prescriptions, according to the agency’s report. In addition to the fine, regulators also put the 7292 Fulton Drive CVS store on probation for at least three years during which it will be subject to enhanced monitoring. The issues being investigated range from hundreds of prescriptions allegedly being past due, pharmacy staffing shortages, clutter and unsafe working conditions and concerns about maintaining adequate medications safety inside the pharmacy. These concerns led some pharmacists to walk out of CVS and Walgreens stores pharmacies last fall and ignited a national push to unionize pharmacy workers.

Persons: we’ve, We’re, Amy Thibault, ” Steven W, ”, Nicole Goodkind Organizations: New, New York CNN, CVS, State of Ohio, of Pharmacy, CNN, Ohio, Pharmacy, state’s, Pharmacists, Community Pharmacists Association, Walgreens, Walmart, Institute, National Institutes of Health Locations: New York, Canton , Ohio, State, Canton, Ohio, United States

☆ Drugstore closures could make pharmacy deserts even worse
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Pharmacy closures have been a problem for years. “You had a routine: You would go to a pharmacy that was geographically accessible — ideally affordable — was probably preferred for your health insurance plan. Thompson, who himself lives close to a pharmacy in the South Side, said there is now more pressure on remaining locations. But chain closures aren’t likely to lead to more business for independents, which face challenges apart from competition from national chains. Recently, pharmacy workers have been staging walkouts over working conditions they say put patients at risk.

Persons: drugstores, Jenny Guadamuz, ”, “, Guadamuz, Melvin Thompson, Thompson, We’re, Angus Mordant, Omolola Adepoju, University of Houston’s Tilman J, Douglas Hoey, PBMs, Hoey, JC Scott, ” Hoey Organizations: New, New York CNN, CVS, Walgreens, Aid, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Health Policy, Management, Endelo Institute, Bloomberg, Getty, National Community Pharmacists Association, USC, University of, Fertitta Family College of Medicine, Rite, Walmart, Target, Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association Locations: New York, Chicago, United States

☆ Why Walgreens pharmacy workers are walking off the job
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

New York CNN —Retail pharmacists and technicians around the country say they’re overworked, underpaid and fed up. Pharmacy staff at Walgreens locations across the country called out of work on Monday to protest harsh working conditions, leaving some stores closed or critically understaffed. Organizers told CNN that hundreds of workers participated in the organized action, which is expected to last through Wednesday. The walkouts come just two weeks after dozens of pharmacy employees at CVS, America’s largest retail pharmacy chain, walked off the job in Kansas City. Walgreens on Monday said it understands “the immense pressures felt across the US in retail pharmacy right now,” according to Fraser Engerman, senior director of external relations at Walgreens.

Persons: ”, Michael Hogue, Shane Jerominski, Amy Thibault, Fraser Engerman, “ There’s, Dr, Peter Bonis, “ I’m, Hogue, Amanda Applegate, don’t, “, Jerry Seinfeld, that’s, CVS walkouts, “ I’ve, they’ve, we’ve Organizations: New, New York CNN, Walgreens, CNN, CVS, Employees, American Pharmacists Association, Community Pharmacists Association, Pharmacists, Walmart, Amazon, Kluwer’s, Wolters Kluwer Health, Pharmacy, Kansas Pharmacists Association, American, National Alliance of State Pharmacy Locations: New York, Kansas City, United States, “, Kansas

Stores are starting their busiest time of year as customers look for help with colds and the flu. Some drugstores have addressed their challenges by adding employees at busy hours. Chris Adkins said he left his job as a pharmacist with a major drugstore chain a couple years ago because of the stress. Labor strife and staffing shortages in health care are not isolated to drugstores, as the recent Kaiser Permanente strike shows. All told, CVS touts in a pharmacy counter brochure that the company can offer more than 15 vaccines to customers.

Persons: haven’t, Chris Adkins, Adkins, ”, “, drugstores, Richard Dang, Dang, John Staed, Rosalind Brewer, Brewer, Jonathan Marquess, Marquess, Jen Cocohoba, ” Cocohoba, Josh Funk Organizations: University of Southern, California Pharmacists Association, Customers, CVS, Walgreens, Labor, Permanente, National Community Pharmacists Association, University of California San, AP, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group Locations: University of Southern California, Pelham , Alabama, Georgia, University of California San Francisco

☆ Uninsured US patients pay up to $330 for Eli Lilly’s $25 insulin, Senator Warren says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Patrick Wingrove | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Warren’s survey of chain and independent pharmacies across all 50 states, carried out between June 9 and 28, found a third of drug stores charged $164 or more to uninsured patients for Lilly’s Insulin Lispro. Lilly said at the time it would drop the price of its Lispro insulin injection, a generic version of its own branded Humalog, to $25 a vial. The senator’s office found chain stores charged uninsured customers an average of $123 per vial for the generic insulin, compared to $63 at independent pharmacies. “This is a deeply troubling finding, revealing that the pharmacies offering the most affordable Insulin Lispro were the least likely to have it in stock,” the report said. Around 8.4 million of the 37 million people in the United States with diabetes use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Persons: Eli Lilly, George Frey, Eli, Elizabeth Warren’s, Lilly, Joe Biden’s, drugmaker, Warren, Patrick Wingrove, Caroline Humer, Bill Berkrot Organizations: Company, REUTERS, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, U.S, National Community Pharmacists Association, Democrat, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Walmart, Rite, CVS Health, Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, American Diabetes Association, Thomson Locations: Provo , Utah, U.S, Indianapolis, United States, New York

☆ Pharmacy startups are losing their battle with giants like CVS and Walgreens
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Pharmacy startups like Capsule and Truepill are crumbling in the fight against pharmacy giants. But in the past year, the pharmacy startups have begun to crumble. Plus, each chain has thousands of stores across the country, providing the convenience that the pharmacy startups seek to replicate with tech. The digital-pharmacy shakeoutAnalysts suggested that healthcare startups with pharmacy components, rather than pure-play pharmacy startups, are best positioned to succeed. Truepill CEO Sid Viswanathan TruepillBut the pharmacy startups that have attempted to offer additional services have largely shelved those efforts in recent months.

☆ Walgreens is buying Medly's patient data as the pharmacy startup winds down after declaring bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Two months after the pharmacy startup Medly declared bankruptcy, Walgreens is buying up its core business. The startup wanted to sell off the leases for its remaining stores, as well as other assets, Medly's lawyer said during the Tuesday hearing. But Walgreens didn't bid on those assets during Medly's February bankruptcy auction, leaving Medly in control of its remaining stores. The bankruptcy filings revealed that CVS also placed a bid for Medly's pharmacy scripts and other assets. The sale of its pharmacy assets to a major drugstore chain shows just how hard it is to innovate in the pharmacy industry.

☆ CVS and Walmart cut pharmacy hours, citing staffing shortages
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —An apparent shortage of pharmacists is forcing CVS and Walmart to reduce the hours of its pharmacies, as they close earlier in thousands of locations. Beginning in March, both retailers will either cut or shift the hours that their pharmacies operate in response to staffing shortages and waning consumer demand as the height of the Covid-19 pandemic recedes. Walmart, which has pharmacies in most of its 4,600 US locations, will close them two hours earlier, at 7 pm. CVS will shift or cut hours at about 6,000 US pharmacies. In a statement to CNN, Walmart said the new hours are the result of “direct feedback” from its pharmacy employees and customers.

Pharmacists and parents across the country are contending with empty shelves as they search for children’s pain relief medications amid the ongoing spread of RSV, flu and Covid. CVS and Walgreens each announced on Monday that they are limiting the number of children's pain relief medications customers can buy: CVS to two, and Walgreens to six. Courtesy Chantel JablonskiCaswell said shortages of children’s Tylenol and ibuprofen and their generic versions started a month or two ago. Johnson & Johnson Motrin brand children's pain relievers at a Stop & Shop store in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., on Jan. 23, 2022. Khan said “this is probably the worst” shortage of children’s medicine he’s seen, surpassing even peak Covid.

These psychiatric drugs are regulated by the federal government as controlled substances that have high potential for abuse and addiction but are not opioids. The impact on independent pharmacies' prescriptions of psychiatric drugs from the widening crackdown on opioids has not been previously reported. It is dedicated to mitigating the abuse of controlled substances without interfering in good-faith clinical decisions made by doctors, she said. "Pharmaceutical distributors must walk a legal and ethical tightrope between providing access to necessary medications and acting to prevent diversion of controlled substances," Esposito said in a written statement. The FDA, the HHS agency that administers the list of controlled substances, did not respond to a request for comment.

Pharmacies across the United States are reporting shortages of one of the most widely used antibiotics, raising concerns that the medication will be in short supply for the upcoming winter season. Three key amoxicillin manufacturers — Hikma Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in the United Kingdom; Sandoz, based in Switzerland; and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., headquartered in Israel — are reporting shortages of the antibiotic, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which maintains a database of drug shortages. Because amoxicillin is an antibiotic, it is not used to treat infections caused by viruses, such as Covid, the flu or RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). Pharmacists said they are worried if the shortage lingers through the winter, when infections can surge and antibiotic use typically increases. “However, there are a number of factors that can cause or contribute to drug shortages that are out of the FDA’s control.

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday confirmed a nationwide shortage of the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medication Adderall, more than two months after some pharmacies reported difficulties filling prescriptions. The shortage affects the immediate-release form of Adderall, a stimulant that helps manage ADHD symptoms. Dougherty added that Teva expects “intermittent delays through end of year.”The supply from the other Adderall manufacturers isn’t enough to meet the need, the FDA said. The shortage has hit pharmacies differentlySome pharmacies have been having trouble filling Adderall prescriptions since the summer. In May, Walmart and CVS announced they would stop filling prescriptions for controlled substances from telehealth startups such as Cerebral and Done Health, which prescribe stimulants and gained footing during the pandemic.

☆ An Adderall shortage is forcing some people with ADHD to reduce their work responsibilities, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Some retailers including Walgreens are facing problems getting enough Adderall, Bloomberg reported. The shortage has forced some people with ADHD to pare back their duties at work. "There are supply chain challenges with this drug," Walgreens spokesperson Rebekah Pajak told Bloomberg. Anthony Anderson told Bloomberg he too was struggling to maintain his productivity at work. Another person called Kyle told BuzzFeed he was concerned about how his work performance would be affected without Adderall.

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