Specialty Pharmacy

DUBLIN, Ohio — Cardinal Health Specialty Solutions on Wednesday announced that its specialty pharmacy, OncoSourceRx, has been awarded Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation from URAC, a Washington-based healthcare accrediting organization that establishes quality standards for the healthcare industry.

MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. — About 97% of online pharmacies are "rogue" operations operating outside U.S. laws and regulations, according to a new report.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved what it called the second new drug in two months for a form of leukemia, the agency said Friday.

The FDA announced the approval of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' Synribo (omacetaxine mepesuccinate) for chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, a disease that the National Institutes of Health expects will be diagnosed in more than 5,400 people this year. The drug is intended for patients whose disease has progressed after treatment with at least two drugs of a class used to treat the disease.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The leader of pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics will be the keynote speaker at a specialty pharmacy conference Thursday.

Prime said president and CEO Eric Elliott would deliver the keynote speech, titled "Specialty Pharmacy Benefit - The Employer's Perspective" at the first annual Therigy Specialty Pharmacy Leadership Congress in Orlando, Fla.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has declined to approve a drug developed by United Therapeutics Corp. for treating a potentially lethal high blood pressure condition.

The drug maker said it received a complete response letter from the agency for its application for a tablet formulation of the drug treprostinil. The company already markets the drug in injectable and inhaled formulations for pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH, a condition that causes high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs.

DUBLIN, Ohio — Cardinal Health has introduced a new multidose drug packaging system that it said would help pharmacy customers adhere to medication regimens, the company said Tuesday.

LAS VEGAS — More patients with an inflammatory disease of the bowels responded to a drug used for autoimmune disorders than those taking a placebo, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial announced Monday.

Johnson & Johnson said phase-3 trial findings showed that "significantly" more patients with severely active ulcerative colitis responded to Simponi (golimumab), maintaining their responsiveness to the drug through the 54th week. The drug is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.

PHOENIX — A deal that would make a specialty pharmacy a distribution source for an oral-liquid drug may benefit breast cancer patients who have trouble swallowing pills.

Avella Specialty Pharmacy announced Monday a deal with Dara BioSciences that would make a distribution source for Soltamox (tamoxifen citrate) oral solution in the United States. The drug is the only available oral liquid formulation of tamoxifen, previously available in pill form only.