Retail Clinics

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark outlined on Tuesday at a consumer health engagement conference the results of a personalized consumer communications program designed to encourage patients to take their medications as doctors direct.

Early results of the program showed increases in consumers signing up for automatic prescription refills and more readily substituting branded medications for generic medicines to lower costs.

MADISON, N.J. — Ragweed and mold are driving increased allergies across America, Quest Diagnostics reported Monday.

In the study, sensitization rates to common ragweed and mold increased the most of the 11 common allergens evaluated over a four-year period. Sensitization to common ragweed grew 15% nationally, while mold grew 12%. By comparison, sensitization to the 11 allergens combined increased 5.8%.

HAWTHORNE, N.Y. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a generic over-the-counter treatment for allergies made by Taro Pharmaceutical Industries.

Taro announced Monday the approval of cetirizine hydrochloride oral solution.

The drug, a generic version of Johnson & Johnson’s children’s Zyrtec, is used to relieve symptoms of indoor and outdoor allergies and is available in a sugar-free bubblegum flavor.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Diabetes Association announced that it will fund research that will examine the effectiveness of technology-based diabetes management devices.

The studies, funded by the American Diabetes Association/Medtronic Technology in Diabetes Fellowship, will utilize Medtronic's CareLink database — a database of anonymous continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pump-derived data — to assess, evaluate and correlate the application of this and similar technologies used by patients with insulin-treated diabetes.

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — Bayer has launched a reformulated aspirin called Bayer Advanced Aspirin that works in less than half the time of the company's regular aspirin, according to published reports.

According to yet-to-be-published research, the new Bayer Advanced Aspirin can begin providing meaningful pain relief in as little as 16 minutes, compared with an average 100 minutes for the company's mainstay brand.

ABBOTT PARK, Ill. — A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee has voted to recommend that the FDA retain approval of an Abbott drug for high cholesterol in combination with a statin.

The FDA’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee met Thursday to discuss whether to recommend continued FDA approval of Trilipix (fenofibric acid) in combination with simvastatin in patients with mixed dyslipidemia and a high risk of heart disease. The FDA is not bound by advisory committee votes, but usually follows them.

ATLANTA — Swimmer’s ear accounts for as many as 2.4 million doctor visits and nearly $500 million in healthcare costs annually, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Thursday in its "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" found.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Researchers at the University of Alabama in Birmingham found that controlling fat intake could help cut one's risk of developing diabetes.

To examine this, researchers divided 69 overweight nondiabetics, who were at risk for the disease, into two groups, placing the subjects on a diet with modest reductions in either fat or carbohydrate for eight weeks. The lower fat group received a diet comprised of 27% fat and 55% carbohydrate; the lower carbohydrate group's diet was 39% fat and 43% carbohydrate.