INSIGHTS AND PERSPECTIVES

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — Pharmacy advocates are using every tool they can to spread the message that pharmacists bring a lot more than prescription services to the healthcare table. So how about a 341-ft. digital billboard looming above Times Square?

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — The forward-looking vision employed by Gov. Jay Nixon in exploring “next steps” in fighting methamphetamine abuse before even the last step has been put into place and enacted is, in a matter of speaking, extremely short-sighted. It doesn’t even make fiscal sense, because the National Precursor Log Exchange will do more to curb many of the costs associated with fighting meth addicts without conversely increasing the costs associated with fighting a cold.

BURLINGTON, Mass. — A growing drug-treated population will cause the Type 2 diabetes drug market in China to increase to $2.5 billion by 2014, according to a new report by Decision Resources.

The Type 2 diabetes market in China totaled $1.4 billion in 2009, Decision Resources said.

NEW YORK — Recent public perception that the Food and Drug Administration had not been doing its job — ensuring that Americans' approved medical devices and medicines are relatively safe — may be impeding fast approval processes, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report published Tuesday.

The report, “Improving America’s Health V,” determined that the FDA’s renewed vigor for enforcing regulations may be straining the working relationship between regulator and the industry being regulated.

WASHINGTON — The Institute of Medicine on Tuesday issued a report on the dietary reference intake levels for vitamin D and calcium at the behest of both the U.S. and Canadian governments. IOM recommended a slight increase in vitamin D intake, but also suggested that the need for either vitamin D or calcium may be overstated.

NEW YORK — The spate of recent product recalls may be eroding consumer confidence in the Food and Drug Administration, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1,000 Americans released Tuesday.

Approximately one-half of respondents reported they think the FDA does a good job, but more than one-third (36%) of U.S. consumers said they have lost confidence in the FDA over the past two years as a result of high profile safety concerns and product recalls.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — This is part of the future of health care that Walgreens envisioned when it first began to make a major commitment to specialty pharmacy — it knew it could save payers and patients a whole lot of money.

(THE NEWS: Walgreens promotes big savings via monitored oncology Rx therapy. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT — Medicine Shoppe is about to get a new top manager. And with the promotion of company veteran John Fiacco to VP of its Medicine Shoppe and Medicap stores, parent company Cardinal Health effectively is changing the culture at its franchise pharmacy division.

(THE NEWS: Cardinal taps Fiacco to succeed Burnside as top exec for Medicine Shoppe, Medicap. For the full story, click here)