Licensing

FLINT, Mich. — Diplomat senior director of education and quality Jennifer Hagerman has been named as president-elect of the Michigan Pharmacists Association for 2014, the specialty pharmacy company said Wednesday.

Diplomat said members of the MPA had voted in Hagerman, who directs Diplomat's training arm, Diplomat University, as well as overseeing the company's quality assurance program and directing its Postgraduate Year One Pharmacy Residency Program.

NEW YORK — URAC has granted accreditation to Parkway Pharmacy, a specialty pharmacy based in New Jersey.

The pharmacy said Monday that it had received URAC's full Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation. Parkway was established in 2010.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Specialty Pharmacy Certification Board has certified nearly 50 pharmacists following the first round of exams, the group said Monday.

The SPCB announced that 49 pharmacists had earned the Certified Specialty Pharmacist accreditation after taking the exams, which were administered in October, covering intake, fulfillment, clinical management and outcomes.

NEW YORK — Shedding more light on the important role that retail-based health clinics — and the nurse practitioners who work in them — play in the U.S. healthcare system, a new study suggests that eliminating restrictions on nurse practitioners' scope of practice could have a “large impact” on the cost-savings.

NEW YORK — State legislators in Michigan are considering a bill that would allow pharmacies to sell medical marijuana, according to published reports.

NEW YORK — A proposal by the Texas State Board of Pharmacy to eliminate the required ratio of pharmacy technicians to pharmacists in retail pharmacies in the state has drawn mixed responses from professional and industry trade groups.

Currently, the required ratio is three technicians to one pharmacist, which the board's proposal would remove for retail pharmacies, known under Texas law as "Class A" pharmacies. In response, the Texas Pharmacy Association has proposed an interim ratio requirement of four technicians to one pharmacist.

WASHINGTON — Medication safety and pharmacy information systems get more attention in the latest version of an exam for pharmacy technicians.

The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board announced Friday updates to the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam, based on the group's Job Analysis Study, which involves more than 25,000 pharmacy technicians from across the country and from different practice settings. The updated exam has nine knowledge groups known as domains, rather than three.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The Paws Pet Co. is buying an Irvine, Calif.-based compounding pharmacy as it seeks to transition from a pet company into a pharmaceutical company, Paws said.