Retail Clinics

MADISON, Miss. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved two cough-cold medications made by Cypress Pharmaceutical, the company said Monday.

Cypress announced the approval of Zutripro (hydrocodone bitartrate, chlorpheniramine maleate and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride) and Rezira (hydrocodone bitartrate and pseudoephedrine). Both drugs are oral solutions and, because they contain the opioid hydrocodone, are classified as schedule III controlled substances by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Cypress subsidiary Hawthorn Pharmaceuticals will market the drugs.

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — Bayer on Tuesday introduced its new Bayer Advanced Aspirin, billed as relieving pain “twice as fast” as the previous Extra Strength Bayer Aspirin.

Using a patent-pending Pro-Release technology, the particles in the new formulation are one-tenth the size of Extra Strength Bayer Aspirin and dissolve six times faster.

BOSTON — Men with prostate cancer are at a higher risk of developing diabetes or diabetes risk factors if they receive a therapy designed to block the production of testosterone, a new study has suggested.

WOONSOCKET, R.I., and COLUMBUS, Ohio — MinuteClinic has entered a clinical affiliation with OhioHealth, a not-for-profit, charitable healthcare organization based in Columbus. MinuteClinic has seven walk-in medical clinics inside select CVS/pharmacy stores throughout the region.

SAN FRANCISCO — Health 2.0 and Walgreens on Thursday announced the launch of the Walgreens 2011 Challenge: A New Approach to Patient Information Navigation, which invites teams of developers to create an application that presents aggregated U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data on specific health topics.

The challenge is being sponsored by Walgreens, as part of the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge, as a way to supply both Walgreens healthcare staff and patients with a tool for searching and learning about health-related topics, the companies stated.

NEW YORK — A new strain of swine flu has emerged that appears somewhat resistant to flu drugs, according to published reports.

Reuters reported that scientists in Australia and Singapore had found a variant of the H1N1 flu that showed some resistance to Roche’s Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) and GlaxoSmithKline’s Relenza (zanamivir), though drug maker BioCryst currently is developing a drug called peramivir, to which the strain was not resistant.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — MinuteClinic and Cleveland Clinic Florida, a multispecialty academic medical center that is part of the Cleveland Clinic health system, have entered into a clinical affiliation to enhance the healthcare services they provide and offer patients greater access to care.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration is seeking to limit the use of high doses of a drug for high cholesterol due to the risk of a muscle injury known as myopathy.