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NEW YORK — Unilever’s Simple facial skin care brand has teamed up with Makers, a multiplatinum video experience from AOL and PBS that honors trailblazing women, to launch a nationwide search to find women in local communities who will become recognized as “Next Makers.”

For the next several weeks, the public may nominate themselves or women in their own lives who have made a remarkable impact at a local level, are viewed as role models and inspire people around them to take action.

As states grapple with tight budgets, rising Medicaid costs and the anticipated expansion of Medicaid following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, policy-makers should consider how community pharmacists can help reduce expenses. In addition, new evidence offers a fresh reminder of the perils of managed care in Medicaid and the need for proper oversight of managed care entities.

SUPPLIER NEWS — The maker of Splenda has introduced a new zero-calorie sweetener. McNeil Nutritionals said Nectresse, made from monk fruit extract, is 100% natural. As part of the product launch, the brand has tapped journalist Lisa Ling to serve as its spokeswoman. Nectresse sweetener is available in both single-serve packets (40 servings) and canisters (140 servings) for suggested retail prices of $3.99 and $6.99, respectively.


Online Groupons for health services? Doctors and hospitals sharing patient data and treatment goals with retail clinics, pharmacies and urgent care centers? Hospitals luring patients with inviting atriums and indoor waterfalls? It’s all part of a wave of “retailization” as the nation’s transforming health system emerges from behind the walls of hospitals, labs and doctors’ offices, and repositions itself as a more retail-oriented, patient-friendly network of care.


ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores urged House and Senate leaders to support bipartisan legislation that would level the playing field between brick-and-mortar retail businesses — including community pharmacies — and Internet and other remote sellers. The legislation also would give states the ability potentially to collect millions of dollars in sales tax annually.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid is touting its vaccinating pharmacists as the back-to-school season begins.

The retail pharmacy chain said its pharmacists were ready to provide vaccinations against pertussis, meningitis, hepatitis B, human papillomavirus and other diseases, in addition to providing advice on oral health, nutritional supplements, cough-cold supplies and first-aid kits.

SAN FRANCISCO — With the Supreme Court maintaining a status quo of sorts with regard to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act last month, retail pharmacy operators are going to need to continually drive efficiencies into their businesses, McKesson chairman and CEO John Hammergren noted during the wholesaler's first-quarter conference call.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Significant product recalls and the ongoing recession have driven consumer behavior change in the OTC aisle, according to a new report published Tuesday by Kline. In addition, road blocks to savings, such as reimbursement of OTC medicines under flexible spending accounts, were recently put in place with the new requirement that those medicines now to be prescribed by a physician in order to qualify for reimbursement. Approximately 1-in-5 respondents have used FSAs to purchase OTC drugs or nutritional supplements in the past, the report noted.

WASHINGTON — The Council for Responsible Nutrition on Wednesday honored the 100th anniversary of the "vitamin," a term that was coined by Casimir Funk, a Polish-American biochemist, in 1912. In the century since then, scientists have uncovered the specific functions of vitamins and established the many benefits of adequate intakes of the nutrients.

Health reform will stand. So what’s next for the pharmacy technician?

WASHINGTON — The Council for Responsible Nutrition last week named six new companies to its membership roster — voting members OmniActive Health Technologies, POM Wonderful, Procter & Gamble and Sensient Pharmaceutical Coating Systems; and associate members Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and the Natural Marketing Institute.