Student pharmacists from The Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo visited the State Capitol on Tuesday to deliver informational packets to legislators. Lawmakers are deliberating the fate of funding a permanent building for the college. UH says the accreditation of the college is at risk, which is being evaluated by committee members from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. The conference committee is the final hurdle for legislation before heading to state House and Senate floor votes in early May. The state Senate has included the $38 million needed for the building in its budget, but the House has not. The informational packets, including a CD with 1,000 letters of community support and petitions with 1,243 signatures, are a product of a group of community members called the Friends of The Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy Steering Committee, headed by Kelvin Sewake, a Hilo resident. "The community has really come out in full support of the College, and for that we are truly grateful," said Sewake, who also is the father of a student pharmacist. "The letters and petitions represent the hopes and dreams of the current pharmacy students as well as … Continue reading →

NuVision Pharmacy is voluntarily recalling all unexpired lots of lyophilized compounds HcG 5000IU-5ml and Sermorelin/GHRH6-5ml to the user level. The recall is being initiated due to a lack of sterility assurance and concerns associated with the quality control processes identified during the FDA inspection. In the event a sterile product is compromised patients are at risk for serious and possible life threatening infections. To date, NuVision Pharmacy has received no reports of injury or illness associated with the use of our sterile products. However, out of abundance of caution and in the interest of our patients, NuVision Pharmacy has decided to voluntarily proceed with this recall process. These products were supplied to the offices of licensed medical professionals. NuVision Pharmacys sterile products covered under this recall were distributed nationwide. NuVision Pharmacy is notifying its customers by fax or email to return the products to the pharmacy. Consumers or Health Care providers with questions regarding this recall may contact NuVision Pharmacy by phone at 800-914-7435 on Monday through Friday from the hours of 10 am to 6 pm CST, or by e-mail at pharmacist@nuvisionpharmacy.com. Patients who have received any product distributed by NuVision Pharmacy and have concerns should contact their healthcare … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans said Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration should have acted years earlier to close the Massachusetts pharmacy responsible for a deadly meningitis outbreak tied to contaminated medications. A report issued by Republicans blasts the FDA for failing to act on years of complaints about problematic drugs and practices at the New England Compounding Center. The compounding pharmacy produced tainted pain injections that have sickened more than 700 Americans and killed 53 others. The wave of infections was first identified in September and grew into one of the deadliest medication-related outbreaks in U.S. history. The NECC halted operations in October and faces over 100 lawsuits in federal court. But more than half-year later, lawmakers in Washington continue to debate whether the public health crisis could have been prevented. Republicans on the House subcommittee investigating the outbreak said that the FDA should have closed the NECC based on complaints from doctors, patients, hospitals and drug distributors. The FDA first inspected the pharmacy in 2002 and issued a warning letter in 2006 for mass-producing copies of manufactured drugs. Beginning in 2007 and continuing through 2012 the FDA continued to receive complaints about the company from anonymous informants … Continue reading →

HOUSTON, April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Derek Merman from The Merman Law Firm,located in Houston, Texas is accepting additional clients who are victims of compounding pharmacy recalls -- recalls which seem to be announced on an increasingly routine basis. For example, in 2011, 2012, and most recently in 2013, compounding pharmacies have been responsible for contaminated drugs that have caused serious infections, vision loss, and an alarming outbreak of fungal meningitis, which resulted in serious illnesses and deaths. For good reason, these pharmacies' practices are drawing scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130417/PH95165-a) (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130417/PH95165-b) A compounding pharmacy is a practice in which a licensed pharmacist combines, mixes, or alters ingredients in response to a prescription to create a medication tailored to the medical needs of an individual patient. The FDA recognizes that pharmacy compounding, performed as it was originally intended, provides an important service if a patient cannot be treated with an FDA-approved medication. For example, a compounding pharmacy may alter an FDA-approved drug to ensure that an ingredient the patient is allergic to is eliminated, or to change the medication's form from a pill to a liquid. The compounding pharmacy industry is growing, and in … Continue reading →