In 2012, the Food and Drug Administration approved 39 new drugs, 8 alone in December, marking the largest increase in 16 years.

Retail co-pays for drugs are on the rise across all drug types, according to a new study by the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute.

Drug maker Merz Pharmaceuticals is suing Par Pharmaceutical over the latter's attempt to market a generic drug for cerebral palsy patients, according to published reports.

E-prescribing offers many well-known benefits to physicians, pharmacists and patients alike. Beyond the well-known patient benefits, real-time transactions with automated requests and responses promise to create efficiencies by speeding the medication ordering process, reducing or eliminating the back-and-forth communications between pharmacists and clinicians commonly associated with handwritten prescriptions.

AffordRx.com is making a prescription discount card that offers savings of up to 75% at more than 56,000 pharmacies across the country available to all residents of the United States, the company said.

Increasing the prescriptions filled by Medicare beneficiaries by 1% would reduce the program's spending on medical services by about 0.2% by reducing costs in such areas as hospitalizations, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office.

Patent settlements between generic and branded drug companies seem like one of the most controversial and long-standing issues in the pharmaceutical world, with strong opinions on both sides.


In 2011 and 2012, the steady surge of blockbuster pharmaceuticals falling off the patent cliff became a stampede. An astonishing number of big-selling drugs that had established and sustained branded drug makers’ profits for years fell victim to the expiration of their patent lives and market exclusivity, roiling the pharmaceutical marketplace and redefining the pricing model for many of the most widely prescribed classes of medicines.


Generic Pharmaceutical Association president and CEO Ralph Neas called it “the most important pharmaceutical legislation since the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act.” John Castellani, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the law served “the best interests of America’s patients.”


Indian generic drug maker Wockhardt received three new drug approvals from the Food and Drug Administration, agency records show.

Residents in counties across the country that participate in the National Association of Counties' Prescription Discount Card Program have saved more than $500 million on their prescription medications since the launch of the program in 2004, according to data released by NACo and CVS Caremark.