Source: photo with permission from owner: The CVS in West Baltimore #FreddieGray

Two links about the baltimore riots related to pharmacy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn-g68MF8S0

Video of people throwing rocks at a glass door 

titled: Baltimore looters 4/25/2015 Pharmacy

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-stand-outside-a-damaged-cvs-pharmacy-near-the-news-photo/471375000

Off topic post because stress is treated with drugs.

Streesed out? How about a trip to visit malaysia?

(They made headlines for misspelling distress and de-stress).

http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/67802894/Come-and-distress-Malaysias-stress-ball-mocked-online

http://www.borderchronicle.com.au/story/3015513/come-and-distress-malaysias-stress-ball-mocked-online/

Feel lonely? Don't want to go on match.com? 

Can't afford to visit malaysia?

If you speak Chinese you can participate in a video chat at http://www.bobo.com where according to reuters "girls chat with fans and get gifts…" and describes the style of chinese flirting as a "woman acting in a cutesy child like manner speaking in whiny voice"

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/videos/life/watch/reuters-video-no-sex-please-just-cutesy-flirting-for-chinas-online-hostesse

Here's a FDA Post Tax Day drug approval. Is your heart is feeling weak? Do you have CHF?

Corlanor or ivabradine is for chronic heart failure (CHF) due to weakness in the left ventricle in patients whose heart can make 1.167 beats a second (or 70 beats each minute). Beta Blockers are ok to take in combination per the FDA Press release. 

Interestingly the international version of Lexi-Comp says it should be used by those with at least 75 beats a minute. It is also used overseas instead of Beta Blockers in patients with stable angina. Success with unstable angina, and variant angina is not mentioned. Dosages are between 5-15 mg per day depending on how much it lowers the heart rate.

Guide prior to picking it up from your friendly pharmacist.
According to the WSJ there was a study of 6,500 people and it's been approved in Europe since 2012 for CHF and 2005 for angina.

Root cause of the CHF is normally attributed to heart disease or high blood pressure. This strikes about 5 million US citizens. The FDA mentions It was studied in 6,505 people and granted a fast track approval. Look for the Med According to Norman Stockbridge, M.D., Ph.D., who works at the FDA, “Corlanor is thought to work by decreasing heart rate and represents the first approved product in this drug class.” 

Is the FDA saying slower heart rate is a new mechanism of action / MOA? Beta Blockers bind to beta receptors and slow down the rate... As the body's ability to compress and relax the heart is based on electricity, this medication slows down the speed of electric travel. Yet, lidocaine increases the ventricle's stimulation threshold. Technically no, so it's not more than just decreasing heart rate or decreasing heart rate via an electric pathway. Wait for the newer articles to talk more about the  MOA.

The US manufacturer is Amgen, which got permission to sell it from Les Laboratoires Servier in 2013.



Source: fda, latimes and WSJ


freeimages.com/judith hakze

Happy tax day

According to Taxadmin.org as of January 1, 2015 the following states and the district of columbia have a sales tax, but do not charge state sales taxes on both RX and OTC drugs. Hopefully there are no local taxes additionally. (Forgive the possible redundancy, but states without sales taxes were left off the list).

DC

VA

VT

TX

PA

NY

NJ

MN

MD

FL

Come back soon for an interview with a pharmacist author!

Walgreens-Boots has  8,232 stores in the US. Of those 200 have not had good revenues. To save the company from using its limited resources ineffectively 200 will be closed. Over a two year period the company hopes to save one and a half billion USD. It plans to keep its employees, but move them to other  Walgreens stores. Management is considering evaluating stores for closure on a yearly basis. During the past quarter, revenues were about 1 billion less than analysts expected though earrings were higher than expected.

Source: Drug Topics

For those who are licensed in New Mexico as a pharmacist, are you sick of CEs, would you like a legal alternative? They have one in the form of a pilot study on Continuous Professional Development click on the new mexico link for more information

< http://www.rld.state.nm.us/uploads/files/CPDFlier-final2.pdf >

Summary of PDF: complete an orientation program, if you like what you learn email

1. Kristina Wittstrom, RPh: kwittstrom@salud.unm.edu or
2. if you have an aversion to email pick up the phone can call Joe Anderson at 505-272-3664 or Kristina Wittstrom at 505-272-3661.


Source: State of NM's website

For those who live near Boston, Massachusetts, someone wants to take your healthy stool to fix people with C.Dif. However, one has to be examined first. It *must* be a healthy stool. Open Biome is in Medford, Massachusetts.  Depending on which map engine one uses, it's 5.5 - 18 miles away from Boston. 
Why should one care? If one has a C.Diff infection, and one has tried and failed various medicines (flagyl or vancocin for instance) and one has chosen an inexpensive health plan that may not cover Dificid, without  the consumer feel they are breaking bank, then one may want to use a non-pharmacologic therapy. 
It's like giving blood, the healthy don't need it, but the sick will very much appreciate it.

article source:http://www.openbiome.org/stool-donation/
image source:
wikipedia