Pharmacy Times

The FDA's drug-safety evaluation system is not working, according to Curt Furberg, MD, PhD, a medical epidemiologist at Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC) and a former member of the FDA's drug safety and risk management advisory panel.

As coauthor of a study reported recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. Furberg said that the FDA received 2 1/2 times more reports of serious health problems linked with medication in 2005, compared with 1998. The...

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Already under fire from organized medicine, the fast-growing retail health clinics in community pharmacies are now receiving some unwanted scrutiny by state regulators.

Nationally, officials at the Convenient Care Association estimate that there are some 500 in-store clinics now in operation, and that 200 more will open by the end of this year. By 2009, the group predicts that the number will reach 3000, with chains such as Wal-Mart, Target, and CVS...

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Compounding pharmacists not only provide an essential service to their human patients, but also play a critical role in enhancing animal health, according to a new survey of the nation's veterinarians.

Having access to compounded medications is "extremely important" to 80% of the veterinarians who participated in the poll, whereas the rest called access to compounded animal drugs "important" to their practice.

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