Specialty Pharmacy

HORSHAM, Pa. — Johnson & Johnson is seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a drug to treat active psoriatic arthritis, the company said Thursday.

J&J subsidiary Janssen Biotech submitted an application to the FDA for Stelara (ustekinumab) for adult patients with the disease, which affects more than 2 million people in the United States, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation. Another subsidiary is seeking approval for Stelara for the same usage in Europe.

DANBURY, Conn. — The Food and Drug Administration has given special designation to a treatment made by Biodel for patients with congenital hyperinsulinism, a rare disorder that affects children.

Biodel announced that it had received orphan drug designation for glucagon to prevent hypoglycemia, or abnormally low blood sugar, in patients with CHI.

ADDISON, Texas — Walgreens last month acquired UCH Pharmaceutical Services, an independent retail pharmacy based in Indiana, the company that helped broker the deal announced Wednesday. 

UCH is an independent retail pharmacy that provided specialty compounding services throughout Grant County, Ind. 

The Transition Companies acted as UCH’s sole M&A advisor for this transaction, which closed in November 2012.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Pharmacy technology provider QS/1 has entered a contract with CoverMyMeds to automate a process often required by insurers to dispense specialty drugs.

QS/1 said it entered a partnership with CoverMyMeds to automate the prior-authorization process, required for 90% of specialty drugs on the market.

"A pharmacist can spend a lot of time cutting through the red tape to get these prescriptions filled," QS/1 pharmacy market analyst John Frady said. "CoverMyMeds helps cut down on that work load by automating the process."

NEW YORK — Women with ovarian cancer and diabetes who took the generic diabetes drug metformin showed better survival rates than those who did not take the drug, according to a new study led by the Mayo Clinic.

The study, published in the journal Cancer, enrolled 61 patients who took metformin and 178 who didn't. Of those who took the drug, 67% were surviving after five years, compared with 47% of those who didn't take it. Further analysis indicated that patients taking metformin were almost four times likelier to survive than those not taking it.

NEW YORK — Specialty pharmacy purchasing and channel management group Armada Health Care and healthcare services company Amerinet will provide services to each other's members under a co-marketing agreement, the two companies said Monday.

Amerinet members will receive access to Armada's specialty pharmacy services, while Armada will also provide members technology services, network access, limited-distribution products and others. Meanwhile, Armada members will receive Amerinet's contract portfolio of medical surgical and other non-pharmaceutical products.

WASHINGTON — Increasing the prescriptions filled by Medicare beneficiaries by 1% would reduce the program's spending on medical services by about 0.2% by reducing costs in such areas as hospitalizations, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug made by Exelixis for treating thyroid cancer, the agency said.

The FDA announced the approval of Cometriq (cabozatinib) to treat medullary thyroid cancer — a cancer that develops in cells in the thyroid gland that make calcitonin, a hormone that helps maintain a healthy level of calcium in the blood — that has spread to other parts of the body. Another drug to treat medullary thyroid cancer, AstraZeneca's Caprelsa (vandetanib), was approved last year.