Thursday, April 30, 2020

Helpful Questions and Answers about Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Your Pets

You've learned  a lot about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and how to keep you and your family safe. But what about the other, furrier members of the family, your pets?  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration offers some questions and answers to help keep you, your family, and your pets safe during the pandemic.
Oklahoma seeks to test 90,000 people, utilize 1,000 contact tracers to limit coronavirus spread
With Oklahoma set to begin its phased reopening Friday, the state aims to beef up COVID-19 testing and contact tracing throughout the month of May.
Read More

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: Daily Roundup April 30, 2020

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today continued to take action in the ongoing response effort to the COVID-19 pandemic:

  • Today, the FDA included, under the ventilator emergency use authorization (EUA), a ventilator developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is tailored to treat patients with COVID-19. The ventilator was added to the list of authorized ventilators, ventilator tubing connectors and ventilator accessories under the ventilator EUA that was issued in response to concerns relating to insufficient supply and availability of FDA-cleared ventilators for use in health care settings to treat patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NASA VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally) is intended to last three to four months and is specifically tailored for patients with COVID-19, by providing respiratory support for patients that are experiencing respiratory failure or insufficiency. The device is designed to ...

Kudos to Texas Board of Pharmacy for now live streaming their meetings!!

Texas Board of Pharmacy Meeting Scheduled for May 5, 2020

Upcoming Board Meeting - May 5, 2020


The next Texas State Board of Pharmacy Board Meeting will be held in May. TSBP Board Meetings are open to the public, and interested parties are encouraged to attend.*

Details of the upcoming meeting are as follows:

Date: May 5, 2020
Time: 9:00 a.m. – Conclusion
Location: Zoom Meeting (meeting link and additional information will be posted on the agenda)
Agenda Materials: Posted here when available
Live Stream Information: TSBP is now live streaming meetings. See this page for details.

*PLEASE NOTE: Due to the nature of remote meetings, TSBP will not be able to provide continuing education credit for this meeting since attendance cannot be verified.

Kudos to Texas State Board of Pharmacy for keeping their members updated during COVID-19

The Texas State Board of Pharmacy continues to update our COVID-19 resources page regularly with important pharmacy-related regulatory updates, which you can find at www.pharmacy.texas.gov/coronavirus.

Temporary Rule Suspensions
Since the last newsletter writing, several more temporary rule suspensions have been granted by the Office of the Governor. Learn more about them here.

Emergency Adoptions & Procedures
TSBP has not adopted any new emergency rules since March 2020, but has issued guidance on emergency rule 291.30. The guidance can be found here.


Guidance Statements & Responses
Guidance statements can be found here. Some recent updates include COVID-19 waste disposal guidance from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for pharmacies that provide COVID-19 testing, CDC considerations for pharmacies during this time, and Texas DSHS information regarding pseudoephedrine purchases during the disaster declaration. Read more about this and other COVID-19-related guidance on our website here.
High E-Cig Use by U.S. Adults Who Just Quit Regular Cigarettes
Deaths from COVID-19 will soon outpace deaths from any flu since 1967. (Reuters)
FDA finds some ethanol hand sanitizers contain carcinogens or other contaminants and warns their manufacturers. (Reuters)

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

"On Saturday, April 25, 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an Executive Order (EO) granting NYS pharmacists the ability to order and perform CLIA-waived COVID-19 diagnostic and antibody testing. Previously, pharmacists were not authorized to perform"

https://www.newzjunky.com/kinney-drugs-responds-to-gov-cuomos-executive-order-allowing-pharmacists-to-perform-covid-19-tests/

Enough Already With Opioid Bellwethers, Pharmacies Say

https://www.law360.com/classaction/articles/1268294/enough-already-with-opioid-bellwethers-pharmacies-say

Amid COVID-19, Bipartisan Letter Calls for Pharmacy DIR Reform As Part of Relief

https://www.drugtopics.com/latest/amid-covid-19-bipartisan-letter-calls-pharmacy-dir-reform-part-relief

Pharmacy Groups Request COVID-19 Testing Authority for California Pharmacists Wednesday, April 29, 2020

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/pharmacy-groups-request-covid-19-testing-authority-california-pharmacists

Governor’s office: $800K for state’s controversial malaria drug purchase refunded by Meds in Motion

https://gephardtdaily.com/breaking/governors-office-800k-for-states-controversial-malaria-drug-purchase-refunded-by-meds-in-motion/

Hospital demand for hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 patients is waning By ED SILVERMAN @PharmalotAPRIL 28, 2020

https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2020/04/28/covid19-coronavirus-hydroxycholoroquine-lupus-trump/

Pharmacists question legality of state’s scrapped plan to distribute malaria meds for COVID-19

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/04/28/price-gouging-complaint/
6 days ago - 2020-B ~ Amends the definition of "drugs of concern" in Chapter 29 - Prescription ... Drugs, and Devices to establish standards for the compounding of copies o

Search Results

Web results

7 days ago - prescription drugs anecdotally identified as potential treatment or prophylaxis for COVID-19 for their ... interstate distribution of compounded drug products? 34.
5 days ago - ... impractical prescriptions for drugs that have no reasonable medical purposes. ... the compounded drugs to the accomplices, including the prescriptions issued 
1 day ago - compounding a drug that is essentially a copy of a commercially available drug, ... produce compounded drugs under more robust quality standards than those .
7 days ago - Over the last few days, FDA has issued several guidance documents relating to compounding of certain aqueous injectable drugs by outsourcing facilities, .
1 day ago - The compounded drugs must be labeled with a default by-use-date. State-licensed pharmacies must have state permission before compounding the drugs. The 
23 hours ago - The US FDA clarifies that drugs in shortage are not considered “essentially a copy” of an approved drug and can be compounded by traditional
35 mins ago - ... Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted it unprecedented approval, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to publish a list of compounded drugs that 503B .
6 days ago - The Board expects that it may be necessary for pharmacies to provide drugs and ... between the compounded drug and the comparable commercially available ..

Search Results

Web results

6 days ago - Non-Patient Specific Drug Compounding by In-State Pharmacies for ... An in-state pharmacy intending to compound drugs in shortage pursuant to rule 
2 days ago - Title I has had a significant impact on pharmaceutical products compounded by outsourcing facilities and traditional pharmacies. This conference will discuss ...
12 hours ago - Outsourcing facilities that produce compounded drugs play a pivotal role in the coronavirus pandemic by ensuring that hospitals have access to critical 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced the following actions taken in its ongoing response effort to the COVID-19 pandemic: