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Drug shortages have reached an all-time high in the United States, pharmacists are warning.During the first three months of 2024, there were 323 active medication shortages, according to American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and Utah Drug Information Service. Previously, the record high was 320 shortages in 2014.This ASHP started tracking shortages in 2001.MORE: Patients, health care providers face shortages of critical drugs, Senate report finds"All drug classes are vulnerable to shortage," Dr. Paul Abramowitz, CEO of ASHP, said in a statement. "Some of the most worrying shortages involve generic sterile injectable medications, including cancer chemotherapy drugs and emergency medications...

Pharmacies across the United States are reporting that they are having difficulty getting prescriptions to patients because of a cyberattack on a unit of UnitedHealth. The company said in a regulatory filing Thursday its Change Healthcare business, which processes prescriptions to insurance for tens of thousands of pharmacies nationwide, was compromised by hackers who gained access to some of its systems. The company became aware of the cyberattack Wednesday, and, in a separate statement, said it expected the attack to last at least throughout the day Thursday. The cyberattack prevented some pharmacies from processing prescriptions to insurance companies to receive...

In December, Roxbury residents learned the Walgreens location on Warren Street would close its doors in January. It's the fourth Boston Walgreens to close in just over a year, all of which have been in predominately Black and Latino neighborhoods. For customers in those communities, the closures mean more than just losing a pharmacy — it may also mean decreased access to groceries, hygiene products and certain essential healthcare services. Today on The Common, Boston Globe Money, Power and Inequality Reporter Tiana Woodard explains how the closure of retail pharmacies further exacerbates healthcare disparities in the city and what options...

A new Defense Department inspector general report reveals that a little-known in-house pharmacy at the White House erroneously dolled out prescription medications to staff and wasted $750,000 in taxpayer money. One former pharmacy staff member told investigators that a doctor once asked if the staffer could "hook up" someone with a controlled substance "as a parting gift for leaving the White House." The report, according to an article in Stat News, revealed that the pharmacy office dispensed controlled medications like Ambien and Provigil without verifying the patient’s identity. Stat reported that in an office in the White House there was...

BOSTON — A major drugstore chain is shutting down another location in Boston in just a matter of days and people who live in the area are concerned that they are now living in a “pharmacy desert.” The Walgreens at 416 Warren Street in Roxbury will shut its doors for good come Martin Luther King Jr. Day, becoming the chain’s fourth city location to close in a little over a year. In late 2022, Walgreens suddenly shuttered locations in Mattapan, Hyde Park, and on Washington Street in Roxbury. Some Boston City Councilors have blasted the company for closing stores in...

Around a thousand pharmacy workers across the country have walked off the job as part of a strike to protest conditions.The so-called "Pharmageddon" series of walkouts at pharmacy chains including CVS and Walgreens stores started Monday, Oct. 30, and is expected to continue at least through the middle of the week. Around 900 people from about 10 states could participate, organizers of the ongoing protest told NBC News. A growing workload and understaffing are the main reasons for the protest, organizers say, noting that the pharmacy workers are not unionized.In a statement to KDKA in Pittsburgh, CVS said it is...

Surveillance video shows a group of thieves ransacking a local Philadelphia pharmacy while armed with axes and hammers during a wild night of looting across the City of Brotherly Love. The Philadelphia Police Department Northwest Detective Division released footage from September 26 in an attempt to identify suspects who are wanted by police for looting commercial properties. The group of alleged thieves stole “all medication” from a local mom-and-pop pharmacy, police said. Law enforcement said that estimated damages and theft are $150,000. Police say that the group of looters ransacked Fairmount Pharmacy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 10:50 p.m.

Does anyone know a reputable Canadian Pharmacy? My eye drops are now almost $200 for a month's supply, and that's for the generic and if I use GoodRX. I've been researching several: Blue Sky Drugs, Canadian Pharmacy King, Canada Drugs Online, Canada Pharmacy Depot, Canada Online Health, Price Pro Pharmacy and Northwest Pharmacy. Do you have any recommendations?

Scott Winkler, who lives in the area, has been a loyal customer of the Rite Aid store for three years. He recently found out the pharmacy was closing, leaving him and other residents in the neighborhood without easy access to essential medications. "Somebody has to stand up for what's right, and that is a pharmacy that is an intricate part of this area," Winkler said. "Now it's gone, and the only thing we have left is Family Dollar — and hopefully they won't close." With the pharmacy closing, Winkler will no longer be able to walk over to get his...

China Controls Your MedsDemocrats and Republicans battered TikTok’s CEO at a House of Representatives hearing on Thursday — for good reason. The Chinese app poses a national security risk, accumulating troves of data on its American users. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s slithery comment that “I don’t think spying is the right way to describe it,” only heightened concerns.Another Terrifying Chinese ThreatToo bad another Chinese threat — bigger and more immediate — isn’t getting the same attention. China has a chokehold on our medication supply chain. Beijing controls many — in some cases, all — active ingredients for the remedies...

Officials at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and State Department have known for more than three years that some pharmacies in Mexico are selling counterfeit medications laced with illicit fentanyl — and that American tourists are overdosing and dying from them. A California medical examiner first alerted federal authorities in the spring of 2019, when 29-year-old Brennan Harrell died of a fentanyl overdose after he and a friend bought pills at a drug store in Cabo San Lucas. Afterward, his parents said, they cooperated with the DEA during a months-long investigation they say ended with the agency promising to take...

CVS Health Corp. and Walmart Inc. are cutting pharmacy hours in the midst of a pharmacist shortage that has plagued the nation’s biggest drugstore chains throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. CVS, the largest U.S. drugstore chain by revenue, plans in March to cut or shift hours at about two-thirds of its roughly 9,000 U.S. locations. Walmart plans to reduce pharmacy hours by closing at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. at most of its roughly 4,600 stores by March. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. previously said it was operating thousands of stores on reduced hours because of staffing shortages. Combined, the three...

At least 112 Virginia children were given wrong doses of COVID-19 vaccines after a local pharmacy tried to make up for not having the new shots for kids, according to local officials. Ted Pharmacy in Aldie “incorrectly administered” partial doses of adult vaccines to the kids — likely either not fully protecting them or even giving them too much, the Loudoun County Health Department said. “Because they did not have the children’s formulation they used the adult formulation but only gave a third of the amount to the children,” the health department’s director, David Goodfriend, told the Washington Post. “Our...

The shoplifting problem has escalated to prescription drugs. Santa Ana, California 👇🏻pic.twitter.com/HogiGtyNs7— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) October 11, 2021

Here is my experience so far. I signed up and paid my nonrefundable 90 bucks on Monday August 9th a bit before 3pm CT. You have to give them a current photo and a photo of your driver’s license plus cc info. I got a call on Thursday August 12 at 4:30pm from Tampa FL. I had an interview with a lady but I don’t think she was a doctor. I did ask for HCQ too but she did not respond. I told her I would like to get my supply from a local pharmacy but she wouldn’t answer if...

I am looking to obtain some Ivermectin (non-horse paste version) and have heard that online pharmacies in India are a possible source. Has anyone here had any dealings with these pharmacies and do you have any recommendations? Are there specific ones to avoid? Thanks in advance for your input!

I am on a very expensive medication for my mast cell disorder. It was paid for almost fully by our health insurance. I just had a small co-pay for every order. Well, I was forced onto Medicare when I turned 65 and the prescription plan is killing us. The medication is almost full cost, but, I am assured, the bright side is that once I have spent $5,000 in prescription costs, everything is then *free*. The doctors have told me that like I'm supposed to be excited about spending 5K on drugs per year just to supposedly get free stuff...

Is there any place I can obtain hydroxcloroquine and a Zpack? My dr refuses to use it and i am fearful that I may fall ill and not be able to obtain it. Any ideas?

NEWARK, N.J. – A federal grand jury today indicted four men for their roles in a massive compounded medication fraud and kickback scheme they ran out of a pharmacy in Clifton, New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.Jeffrey Andrews, 68, of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; Chad Beene, 47, of Philadelphia; and Adam Brosius, 55, and Robert Schneiderman, 77, both of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, and violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute. They will be arraigned at a date to be determined.According to documents filed in...

A Mississippi businessman pleaded guilty Thursday for his role in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud TRICARE, the health care benefit program serving U.S. military, veterans, and their respective family members, as well as private health care benefit programs, by paying kickbacks to practitioners and distributors for the prescribing and referring of fraudulent prescriptions for not medically necessary compounded medications that were ultimately dispensed by his pharmacies, as well as for his role in a scheme to launder the proceeds of the fraud scheme.Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Mike...