pharmacy
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The most common oral decongestant in the US does not work, FDA finds
The FDA ruled that phenylephrine, a key ingredient in many over-the-counter cold medications, does not actually work to treat nasal congestion when taken orally. The agency will now need to determine if it will revoke the ingredient's oral OTC designation as “safe and effective.”
GoodRx now offers an iOS 'Medicine Cabinet' for managing prescription meds
Health tech company GoodRx, best known for offering a prescription drug price comparison tool, has launched “Medicine Cabinet.” The new product will expand the company's offering and expand user engagement.
Amazon's RxPass offers Prime members generic medications for $5 a month
The RxPass program lets subscribers get as many medications as they need for covered conditions for $5 a month.
CVS Pharmacy now offers audio prescription labels across the US
Following a trial in 2020 involving 1,700 locations across the US, CVS is expanding the availability of its Spoken Rx audio prescription labels to all 10,000 of its pharmacies nationwide
Uber and Walgreens team up for free rides to COVID vaccine appointments
Pilot programs are set to get underway in socially vulnerable communities.
Walgreens offers same-day pickup for online orders
You can collect items from a store, curbside or a drive-through in as little as 30 minutes.
Amazon Pharmacy delivers discount prescriptions to Prime members
Amazon Pharmacy is an online pharmacy offering two-day shipping and deep discounts for Prime members.
CVS now accepts QR code payments from PayPal and Venmo
CVS is rolling out promised QR code payments using PayPal and Venmo, giving you a touch-free purchase option at the pharmacy.
Instacart is expanding Costco pharmacy deliveries nationwide
Instacart is now delivering medication from almost 200 Costco locations in seven states and Washington DC.
Alexa can refill your prescription and remind you to take it
Amazon's healthcare push now includes a simple but important convenience: the ability to manage y our prescriptions from your smart speaker. The company has partnered with Omnicell to let Alexa not only remind you when to take your medication, but to refill it when you're running low. Once you've linked your pharmacy account and enabled your pharmacy's skill, you'll get reminders based on your prescription data -- if you're not sure what you're supposed to take, you can ask. If you need more, you can tell Alexa to "refill my prescription" to put the pharmacy to work.
UPS and CVS plan to deliver prescriptions via drone
UPS isn't going to let Wing's team-ups with FedEx and Walgreens go unanswered. The company has reached an agreement with CVS Pharmacy to create a "variety" of drone delivery uses, including delivering prescriptions and other goods to homes. Neither company provided a timeline for when you might see these drones in action, although UPS recently became the first company with FAA approval to operate a drone airline.
Amazon puts former Kindle leader in charge of its pharmacy business
Amazon's entry into the pharmacy business might not have the leader you'd expect. CNBC has learned that the online retailer has picked Nader Kabbani, an executive who helped establish the Kindle self-publishing system and has worked in Flex and logistics, to head the pharmacy team. While he has supply chain and delivery experience, he's new to health care and pharmaceuticals -- an unusual choice given the frequent challenges involved in haggling drug prices and ensuring distribution.
CVS buys health insurer Aetna to counter Amazon
Amazon is considering diving into the pharmacy business, and that's making incumbents nervous... so nervous, in fact, that it just sparked one of the larger acquisitions in recent memory. CVS Health is acquiring the insurance giant Aetna for the equivalent of $69 billion in a bid to create a highly integrated health care provider. You could get care right from your nearby CVS locations, and you'd have a one-stop shop for health that (theoretically) lowers costs, albeit by giving up choice. If regulators don't object to the deal, it should close in the second half of 2018.
Amazon has drug distribution licenses for at least 12 states
St. Louis Post-Dispatch found more hints that Amazon is truly thinking of getting into the prescription drug biz, which was first reported earlier this month. The publication reviewed public records and found that the e-retail giant has received licenses to become a wholesale drug distributor in at least 12 states. Nevada, Arizona, North Dakota, Louisiana, Alabama, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, Idaho, New Hampshire, Oregon and Tennessee have already approved the company's application, whereas Maine is still thinking about it.
Amazon is thinking of selling medicine online
There might come a time when you can order prescription meds with household items and groceries from Amazon. According to CNBC, the e-retail giant is thinking of breaking into the pharmacy business, and it will have to decide if it wants to push through with it before Thanksgiving. Eric French, Amazon's grocery and Pantry chief, reportedly ramped up hiring for the project dubbed "healthcare" this past year and consulted with "dozens of people."
Walmart's new app helps you skip store lines
Walmart doesn't just want its mobile app to speed up your checkout -- now, it might help you avoid lines altogether for certain services. An upgrade to the app has introduced "express lane" services for both prescription pickups and money transfers. Once you've filled in a medicine or money transfer order on your phone, you just have to waltz up to the appropriate store counter, scan a QR code with the app and complete your business.
FedEx charged with transporting drugs for illegal online pharmacies
Live animals. Hazardous waste. Used tires. Cash. These are all items that you can't ship via FedEx. Medication is accepted, however, as it poses no risk to the carrier -- or so it seemed. Today, FedEx was indicted in a US District Court, facing criminal charges for its role in providing logistics for illegal online pharmacies. Various US agencies have reportedly been warning FedEx to stop accepting such shipments for years, so as shocking as the charges may seem, they should come as no surprise to executives. If guilty, FedEx would have to hand over the $820 million or so it's earned by transporting drugs such as oxycodone and hydrocodone for black market distributers.
UCSF's robotic pharmacy automatically distributes medication, scrutinizes human error (video)
Robots are slowly taking over the world, right? Well, their latest conquest is the pharmacy. The UCSF Medical Center has implemented three robotic pill-dispensing machines that handle and prepare medication that's dangerous to the common human. The process works as follows: doctor writes a prescription, hospital clerk sends it over to pharmacist, pharmacist enters slip into the computer, robot picks up it and does the dirty work. The automated machine will grab the proper dosage, package it and slap a label indicating instructions and patient info. Rather than fearing for their jobs (or lives), the folks at the UCSF at are excited about this robot-takeover 'cause it increases the time care-givers spend with patients while allowing pharmacists to work more efficiently with physicians in determining what medication to supply. The most impressive thing, we think, is that our robot pals have not had a single error since preparing 350,000 doses of meds. Take that, meatbags!
Vitality GlowCap review
The Vitality GlowCap concept's been floating about for years now, but it still slightly blows our minds -- you stick a tiny, battery-powered wireless computer on top of your pill bottle, which reminds you to take your medicine on time. Well, it turns out they aren't exactly a concept these days, as you can buy one for $10 with a $15 monthly plan, and we've actually spent the past month living with the chirping, glowing, AT&T-connected device, keeping a journal all the while. After the break, find out what a life-saving nag feels like. Note: Amazon's actually out of stock at the time of this writing, but Vitality says a new shipment should arrive tomorrow. %Gallery-114026%
Drug vending machines start trial in UK, allow awkward videophone conversations with your pharmacist
You've got to imagine the Japanese are green with envy right now, as the BBC report not one, but two different drug vending machines are being tested out under Her Majesty's watchful eye. The first of these experiments is run by supermarket chain Sainsbury's, which has installed a pair of drug dispenser machines in its stores. They identify users by their fingerprint or a unique number, demand PIN verification too, and then finally accept your prescription. Then -- and this is the really silly part -- a pharmacist comes along, picks up your prescription, fills it out, and deposits it in the machine for you to pick up. So it's impersonal and unnecessarily convoluted, great. PharmaTrust seems to have a slightly better idea with its videophone-equipped, ATM-style robo-vendor: it's intended to allow pharmacists to approve prescriptions off-site and out of usual working hours by letting them speak to you via videophone. It could in fact be a big benefit in more remote areas, depending on how patients take to it -- we'll know more when the trial starts up in participating hospitals this winter.
