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Rx News | February 24, 2012 
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Upcoming Events featuring
National CooperativeRx
Mid-Sized Retirement & Healthcare Plan Management Conference*

March 18-21, 2012  

San Francisco, CA 

Learn more

 

To Register:  

* Register here  and enter the code YNCR  

* Call the Conference Registrar at 800-864-2063

National CooperativeRx is a not-for-profit coalition founded and owned by plan sponsors to achieve higher value prescription benefits through volume purchasing, clinical solutions, actionable data and unparalleled customer service. For your sales and marketing needs, please contact us at 866-679-9479, extension 223

Coalition News
February is all about Heart Health  
February heart health tip of the week: A healthy diet and lifestyle are your best weapons against heart disease.

Click Here to read the American Heart Association's definition of what it means to have ideal cardiovascular health, as they identify seven health and behavior factors that impact health and quality of life.

National CooperativeRx Specialty Webinar Recording
Did you miss our webinar regarding specialty drugs and steps you can take to manage them?  To watch the recording, visit our home page.  The link is at the bottom right-hand side of the page.

News You Can Use

HealthDay. Flu season has finally arrived, officially beginning February 4.  This season was the latest start to the flu season since the winter of 1987-88.  Good vaccine coverage may have helped, but the flu is unpredictable and it's hard to tell why the flu season began so late this year.  (Reinberg, 2/23) Full story  

 

Time.  A federal panel is advising that all adults get vaccinated for whooping cough, or pertussis.  70% of children are vaccinated, but only 8% of adults.  In 2010 a whooping cough outbreak infected 9K people and 10 babies died from the disease.  (Stobbe, 2/22)  Full story

Industry News

BBC. A new skin cancer drug is showing promise for patients with late stage melanoma cancer.  The drug vemurafenib has shown in studies that it can extend a person's life by months.  It is the first drug to be developed for melanoma in a decade. (Briggs, 2/22)  Full story  

 

MarketWatch.  CVS Caremark, Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital published a study this week that revealed that over 1/3 of doctors do not follow American Diabetes Association guidelines when prescribing medication to newly diagnosed diabetic patients.  The first-line drug prescribed should be a generic, but only 65% of physicians followed that guideline.  (2/23)  Full story  

 

Health Policy Matters

Kaiser Health News.  Birth control and health care reform have been points of debate in politics lately.  If you missed the Republican debate last night, you can catch the health care portions of the debate by clicking this link.  (2/23) Full story  

 

MSN. The FDA has eased shortages of two crucial drugs, methotrexate (a chemotherapy drug used to treat childhood lukemia) and the chemotherapy drug Doxil (used to treat ovarian cancer).  The US has a drug shortage for 287 medications, but the FDA has been working to remedy the shortages.  (Aleccia, 2/21)  Full story