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Community pharmacy, also known as retail pharmacy, is the most common type of pharmacy that allows the public access to their medications and advice about their health. Traditionally known as a chemist, it is the healthcare facility that is responsible for the provision of pharmaceutical service to a specific community group or region.

RUB-medical researchers receive $2.3M Gates Foundation grant for HIV vaccine research

To support their research for a vaccine against the HI-Virus, Prof. Dr. Klaus Überla of the Faculty for Medicine at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and his research team will receive $2.3 million in funding within the next three years from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The scientists are part of the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD), which seeks to speed up the development of an HIV-vaccine through a rigorous exchange of information, methods and reagents.

29 Oct 2012

FDA report says pharmacy knew about contamination problems

A federal inspection of a company whose tainted pain medicine has caused one of the worst public health drug disasters since the 1930s found greenish-yellow residue on sterilization equipment, surfaces coated with levels of mold and bacteria that exceeded the company's own environmental limits, and an air-conditioner that was shut off nightly despite the importance of controlling temperature and humidity.

29 Oct 2012

Viewpoints: Washington Post endorses Obama; GOP Senate candidates hurting party's reach to women; 'Too much choice' in Medicare?

Mr. Obama is committed to the only approach that can succeed: a balance of entitlement reform and revenue increases. Mr. Romney, by contrast, has embraced his party's reality-defying ideology that taxes can always go down but may never go up. Along that road lies a future in which interest payments crowd out everything else a government should do, from defending the nation to caring for its poor and sick to investing in its children.

29 Oct 2012

Contaminated drug passed lab test

Products from the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to the deadly meningitis outbreak passed a lab test in May, reports The Wall Street Journal. In addition, the pharmacy dodged a reprimand by Massachusetts regulators in 2004 after protesting it would be "fatal to the business." The company's founders come under scrutiny by media outlets as more people file lawsuits.

26 Oct 2012

Allergies and hygiene: an interview with Sally Bloomfield

Allergies occur when the body overreacts to substances in our environment, such as pollen, dust mites and so forth. What happens is that when we are exposed to these potential threats, the immune system should react, deal with it, and then shut down.

26 Oct 2012

GlaxoSmithKline introduces Complete the Cycle Recycle Program for GSK Respiratory Inhalers

GlaxoSmithKline plc has introduced a new program to help consumers recycle their empty GSK respiratory inhalers and keep waste out of landfills.

25 Oct 2012

Meningitis outbreak spreads; Mass. revokes Compounding Center's license

The Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy has permanently revoked the license of the New England Compounding Center, the facility implicated in a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis, Gov. Deval Patrick announced Tuesday. ... State Director of Healthcare Safety Madeleine Biondolillo said ... investigators witnessed "black particulate matter" in some vials of medicine returned amid the nationwide recall of NECC's products.

25 Oct 2012

Meningitis outbreak linked to pharmaceutical compounding has long history

News outlets report that the FDA released a list of customers - including some major hospitals - of the New England Compounding Center. But the FDA later "found technical problems" and withdrew the list, promising to repost it as soon as the data are corrected.

24 Oct 2012

Review: Herbs and dietary supplements can cause potentially harmful drug interactions

A number of herbs and dietary supplements (HDS) can cause potentially harmful drug interactions, particularly among people receiving medication for problems with their central nervous or cardiovascular systems.

24 Oct 2012

First Edition: October 23, 2012

Today's headlines include various reports from the campaign trail as well as the latest news about current meningitis outbreak.

23 Oct 2012

Viewpoints: LA Times endorses Obama; Romney, Ryan 'obfuscating their plans for Medicare, Medicaid;' Obama's health law polarizes the country

The outcome of the presidential election will determine which of two opposing paths the nation will follow on health care for all Americans. If voters re-elect President Obama, he will protect the health care reforms.

23 Oct 2012

Medicare's policy on compounded drugs under scrutiny; Lawsuits growing in meningitis outbreak

The Associated Press reports on the role Medicare plays in national drug purchasing and The Washington Post finds the "race is on" to sign up clients for lawsuits.

22 Oct 2012

Pediatric ICU patients often receive off-label drug treatments

"Off label" drugs are medications that have not been tested for safety or efficacy for a specific patient age or condition. New research presented Oct. 21 at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans found that off-label treatments were ordered for 96 percent of all pediatric patients, and 100 percent of patients ages 13-17, in the intensive care unit of an urban children's hospital.

22 Oct 2012

Mistakes are still commonly made in prescriptions of antiretroviral medications

Research presented at IDWeek 2012- concludes that despite advances in electronic medical records, mistakes are still commonly made in the prescription of antiretroviral medications for hospitalized HIV-positive patients. At the same time, a trio of studies suggests however, that electronic records in combination with increased clinical education can help to greatly decrease medical errors.

20 Oct 2012

Physician shares lessons learned from fungal meningitis outbreak

In a new perspective piece being published Online First tonight in Annals of Internal Medicine, a physician recalls lessons learned from treating patients affected by the 2002 outbreak of Exophiala (Wangiella) dermatitidis meningitis or arthritis related to contaminated, injectable coticosteroids prepared from a compounding pharmacy.

20 Oct 2012

Most compounding pharmacies are not accredited

News outlets, following the story about a deadly meningitis outbreak linked to drugs provided by a compounding pharmacy, explore the issue of accreditation, how many more people are at risk and what leads doctors to use these drugs.

20 Oct 2012

University of Kentucky to host Makenna Foundation Symposium on Pediatric Pulmonary Disease

The University of Kentucky is hosting the first annual Makenna Foundation Symposium on Pediatric Pulmonary Disease next Friday and Saturday.

20 Oct 2012

Representatives of state boards gather to examine health care issues

Representatives of the state boards that oversee licensing of the nation's physicians, nurses and pharmacists have gathered in Washington, D.C. this week for the first-ever Tri-Regulator Symposium, an event that will examine a variety of health care issues.

20 Oct 2012

Roundup: Va. health chief quits, citing new abortion clinic regulations; Texas will shutter women's health program if Planned Parenthood participates

Virginia Health Commissioner Karen Remley resigned Thursday over new GOP-backed regulations that could shutter most Virginia abortion providers as reproductive rights take center stage in pivotal Senate and presidential races.

20 Oct 2012

True scale of anti-psychotic usage in dementia may be under-estimated

The scale of the challenge to reduce the use of anti-psychotic drugs by people with dementia may be under-estimated, according to researchers from Aston University and the University of East Anglia, working with NHS Kent and Medway. There is a key public health challenge to reduce the prescribing of anti-psychotic drugs to people with dementia as they are thought to be associated with up to 1,800 deaths a year.

19 Oct 2012

Pharmacy News and Research

Further Reading

RUB-medical researchers receive $2.3M Gates Foundation grant for HIV vaccine research

FDA report says pharmacy knew about contamination problems

Viewpoints: Washington Post endorses Obama; GOP Senate candidates hurting party's reach to women; 'Too much choice' in Medicare?

Contaminated drug passed lab test

Allergies and hygiene: an interview with Sally Bloomfield

GlaxoSmithKline introduces Complete the Cycle Recycle Program for GSK Respiratory Inhalers

Meningitis outbreak spreads; Mass. revokes Compounding Center's license

Meningitis outbreak linked to pharmaceutical compounding has long history

Review: Herbs and dietary supplements can cause potentially harmful drug interactions

First Edition: October 23, 2012

Viewpoints: LA Times endorses Obama; Romney, Ryan 'obfuscating their plans for Medicare, Medicaid;' Obama's health law polarizes the country

Medicare's policy on compounded drugs under scrutiny; Lawsuits growing in meningitis outbreak

Pediatric ICU patients often receive off-label drug treatments

Mistakes are still commonly made in prescriptions of antiretroviral medications

Physician shares lessons learned from fungal meningitis outbreak

Most compounding pharmacies are not accredited

University of Kentucky to host Makenna Foundation Symposium on Pediatric Pulmonary Disease

Representatives of state boards gather to examine health care issues

Roundup: Va. health chief quits, citing new abortion clinic regulations; Texas will shutter women's health program if Planned Parenthood participates

True scale of anti-psychotic usage in dementia may be under-estimated

Pittcon Highlights: Pharmaceutical & Biologic eBook

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

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