Diabetes

MIAMI — Navarro Discount Pharmacies has signed a lease for a new 14,000-sq.-ft. store in north Miami. With a store opening planned for the summer of 2011, the newest store will be the company's 29th location and its first new store opening since its airport location opened in 2007.

INDIANAPOLIS — U.S. drug maker Eli Lilly and German drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim will collaborate to develop drugs for diabetes, the companies said Tuesday.

The agreement centers around investigative drugs currently in mid- to late-stage clinical development, including two oral drugs made by BI, BI10773 and linagliptin, and two basal insulin analogues made by Lilly, LY2605541 and LY2963016. The deal also includes options to develop and commercialize a Lilly monoclonal antibody.

LAS VEGAS — Walgreens’ increasing use of mobile technology platforms is transforming the way the company reaches patients and is expanding its ability to deliver health services via smart phones and other devices, a Walgreens official asserted Friday.

Speaking at the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show’s Digital Health Summit this morning, Walgreens chief medical officer Cheryl Pegus laid out the ways the health services and retail pharmacy giant is leveraging technology to make personal health management easier for patients.

PRINCETON, N.J. — A new oral treatment for Type 2 diabetes hit the shelves Friday.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca announced the availability of Kombiglyze XR (saxagliptin and metformin hydrochloride), which the companies called the only once-daily treatment for diabetes that combined metformin with a DPP-4 inhibitor, the drug class to which saxagliptin belongs.

The drug is designed for use alongside diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with Type 2 diabetes.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Bayer Diabetes’ Contour USB, pictured here at CVS, may be ideal for those tech-savvy boomers just learning they have diabetes. 

The monitor takes a blood-glucose reading at one end and can be inserted into the USB port of either a home computer or the laptop in the doctor’s office.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — Patients with one or more out of four chronic diseases studied who take their medications as prescribed may save the healthcare system as much as $7,800 per patient annually, according to findings of a new CVS Caremark study analyzing annual pharmacy and medical costs over a three-year period.



Sales of diet-aid and weight-loss solutions for the past year have been relatively flat, but a confluence of factors — childhood obesity approaching “epidemic” status combined with the real need to reduce escalating healthcare costs connected to obesity — could become a real driver behind weight-loss products in the coming year. 


MIAMI — With new leadership at the helm, Navarro Discount Pharmacy continues its goal of catering to the needs of the Hispanic community in the Miami area. Navarro is the largest Hispanic-owned drug store chain in the United States, with 28 locations that cater to the Hispanic market through their product offerings and services.


The company, which garnered about $320 million in sales in 2009, tapped in late 2009 former Bigg’s executive Steve Kaczynski to serve as CEO, and has since further bolstered its management team as part of its expansion strategy.