Content about Alabama

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A new bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate seeks to protect consumers from Internet drug sellers posing as legitimate pharmacies.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Winn-Dixie on Wednesday announced it has joined forces with Feeding America to launch the Give a Meal program, which gives Winn-Dixie guests and team members the opportunity to help provide food to nearly 37 million Americans — including more than 14 million children — facing hunger this holiday season. Give a Meal runs through Jan. 3 and is available in all of Winn-Dixie’s 482 stores in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Every $1 donated during the campaign helps provide eight meals to people in need.
 

NEW YORK — A Lil Mart convenience store in Odenville, Ala., has installed a refrigerated vending machine that distributes such items as New York strip steaks and pork chops, according to published reports.

The vending machine, called Smart Butcher, offers cuts of meat via cash or debit and credit cards. A 1-lb. tenderloin retails for $4, a 12-oz. rib-eye retails for $5, a New York strip retails for $6, two lbs. of hamburger beef retails for $6.99 and 2 lbs. of sirloin tips retails for $8.95, according to the Los Angeles Times .

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. — Pharmavite on Monday broke ground on the company’s new manufacturing and packaging facility in Opelika, Ala. Representatives from Pharmavite were joined by Alabama governor Robert Bentley, Alabama speaker Mike Hubbard, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers and local community and business leaders.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, an Endo Pharmaceuticals subsidiary, issued a voluntary, nationwide recall of multiple lots of oral contraceptives at the retail level.

Qualitest said it recalled lots of the following birth control pills due to a packaging error, whereby select blisters were rotated 180 degrees within the card, reversing the weekly tablet orientation and making the lot number and expiry date no longer visible. This error, the drug maker said, could leave women without adequate contraception and at risk for unintended pregnancy:

WASHINGTON — The rate of obesity among adults has increased across 16 states, with no states seeing a drop, according to a new report released by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The report also found that 12 states now have obesity rates above 30%, versus four years ago when just one state had a 30% obesity rate, TFAH and RWJF said.

TAMPA, Fla. — A line of all-natural, 100% juice blends has arrived in more than 290 Publix stores across four states.

CoolJuice will be available in Publix's Atlanta division, which includes stores in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. CoolJuice juice blends contain no added sugars, high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives or artificial colors or flavors.

CoolJuice was cofounded by former PepsiCo executive George Gamble.

SWIFTWATER, Pa. — The vaccines division of drug maker Sanofi donated vaccine doses on behalf of the Jeff Gordon Children's Foundation to Direct Relief International, which will aid victims of the recent storms in the Southeast and Midwest.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Researchers at the University of Alabama in Birmingham found that controlling fat intake could help cut one's risk of developing diabetes.

To examine this, researchers divided 69 overweight nondiabetics, who were at risk for the disease, into two groups, placing the subjects on a diet with modest reductions in either fat or carbohydrate for eight weeks. The lower fat group received a diet comprised of 27% fat and 55% carbohydrate; the lower carbohydrate group's diet was 39% fat and 43% carbohydrate.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — The philanthropic arm of retail pharmacy chain Rite Aid is donating $100,000 in money and supplies to victims of tornadoes in Alabama and Tennessee, the company said Friday.

The Rite Aid Foundation said it would donate $50,000 to the Red Cross and also would donate $50,000 worth of water, snacks, batteries, flashlights, first-aid products, diapers, baby formula and cleaning supplies.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark announced on Friday that it has agreed to pay $17.5 million, to be allocated among the federal government and 10 participating states, to resolve a civil complaint concerning how its CVS/pharmacy retail pharmacies submitted reimbursement claims in certain states for prescriptions filled for "dual eligible" patients who have coverage under both Medicaid and a third-party insurance plan.

NEW YORK — Nine people died in Alabama last month after taking a compounded injectable supplement contaminated with bacteria, according to published reports.

The New York Times reported that the patients died of infections with Serratia marcescens bacteria in hospitals after receiving the intravenously administered supplement total parenteral nutrition from the Birmingham, Ala.-based compounding pharmacy Meds IV Pharmacy.