Content about Pharmacist Society

NEW YORK — The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has collected 84% of the fees it intends to collect this year under a law passed last year to collect user fees from generic drug members, according to a memo sent out to CDER staff Tuesday.

CDER director Janet Woodcock wrote that the FDA had collected more than $255 million under the Generic Drug User Fee Amendments to the 2012 Prescription Drug User Fee Act reauthorization. The agency plans to collect $299 million in fiscal year 2013.

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. — A division of Mylan is hiring NFL player Adrian Peterson and celebrity nanny Jo Frost to promote an emergency treatment for severe allergic reactions.

Mylan Specialty announced that it had hired the two — who both have potentially life-threatening allergies — to raise awareness of the problem. Mylan Specialty is launching a multichannel marketing campaign for the EpiPen (epinephrine) auto-injector to mark the 25th anniversary of its approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

JERUSALEM — Teva Pharmaceutical Industries will spend up to $165 million to buy a company developing a drug to prevent viral respiratory infections.

Teva said it would acquire MicroDose Therapeutx for $40 million, plus up to $125 million in milestone payments and sales milestones and royalties from its lead product, MDT-637, an inhaled treatment for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

ELMSFORD, N.Y. — BioScrip will acquire a Cincinnati-based home infusion company for $223 million, BioScrip said Monday.

ALLEGAN, Mich. — Perrigo Co. will pay up to $129 million to buy Fera Pharmaceuticals' portfolio of ophthalmic products, Perrigo said Monday.

Perrigo said the acquisition from Locust Valley, N.Y.-based Fera included an upfront payment of $93 million and milestone payments of about $36 million. The products include generic ophthalmic sterile ointments and solutions and generated sales of more than $30 million in 2012.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens today announced a donation to the Pan American Health Organization to help make 35,000 doses of flu vaccine available to at-risk populations in Laos and Nicaragua, building upon a successful public-private initiative to help create greater access to seasonal flu vaccine in developing countries.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Drug maker Actavis is working with nonprofit pharmaceutical company Medicines360 to make low-cost intrauterine devices available to women, the two said.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Emdeon has bought a company that provides pharmacy benefit and related services to state Medicaid agencies, Emdeon said.

Emdeon announced the acquisition of Goold Health Systems. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"The acquisition expands Emdeon's position in the government pharmacy benefit administration market while enhancing our existing pharmacy benefit operations," Emdeon EVP pharmacy services Kevin Mahoney said.

WASHINGTON — Most of the growth in jobs in the healthcare sector comes from home health care, according to data released this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

PHOENIX — Avella Specialty Pharmacy has released a new white paper for payers selecting new specialty pharmacy partners, the company said Wednesday.

NEW YORK — Google has removed advertisements for websites that sell drugs without prescriptions, following a series of warning letters from a state attorney general, according to published reports.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Pharmacy automation provider QS/1 has received certification for controlled substances prescribed electronically, the company said.

QS/1 said it received Electronic Prescriptions for Control Substances certification, making it one of the first pharmacy vendors to certify for EPCS in the 10.6 Script Standard.