Insurer Sues Compounding Pharmacy over Coverage for Fungi-Contaminated Injection Claims

October 30, 2012

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OCALA, Fla. — Evanston Insurance Co. has filed a federal lawsuit requesting a ruling that it has no obligation to defend a Florida-based compounding pharmacy against claims by individuals who were allegedly infected by fungus-contaminated injections.

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 26 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleges that coverage of at least seven claims and two underlying personal injury suits against Franck’s Lab Inc. is barred by a mold and fungi exclusion contained in policies it sold the company and its related entities.

Evanston says it wants the federal court to declare that it has ...http://harrismartin.com/article/15331/insurer-sues-compounding-pharmacy-over-coverage-for-fungi-contaminated-injection-claims/

Compounding Pharmacies Feeling the Effects of NECC's Errors Meningitis Outbreak Spurs Actions by States

By L.L. Woodard | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 1 hr 9 mins ago

Closing the barn door after the horse has escaped doesn't help those it might encounter, but it does protect people from the many other horses that remain in the barn. This is analogous to what's going on with compounding pharmacies in Florida and Massachusetts, now that the unsanitary conditions of the New England Compounding Center , NECC, have been linked to the current fungal meningitis outbreak.

Massachusetts Takes Action Against Compounding Pharmacies

The New York Times reported that after Massachusetts' health officials performed surprise inspections at some of the compounding pharmacies located in the state, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based Infusion Resource voluntarily surrendered its license over the weekend. The license surrender followed an Oct. 23 inspection that found the environment in which medications were being made revealed sanitation issues and perhaps as importantly, this pharmacy had been administering intravenous medications to patients, a clear violation of their license.

Infusion Resource is the third compounding pharmacy in the state to have its license suspended.

Florida Takes Action Against Compounding Pharmacy

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Pharmacy-made pregnancy drug under scrutiny after meningitis outbreak

By Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News

When a brand-name drug to help prevent premature births was approved last year, its $1,500-a-dose-price alarmed state and private sector insurance officials.

Many restricted use of the FDA-approved Makena in favor of $20- to $40-a-dose versions that had been made for years by pharmacies, saying that would give more women access to the treatment. Federal officials, sympathetic to such arguments, allowed the pharmacies to continue making the unapproved drugs.

But those decisions are now getting a second look following a deadly meningitis outbreak linked to a different pharmacy-made drug that has sickened hundreds of people and killed more than 25. No one has been reported injured by the pregnancy drug knockoffs. But the judgments made about Makena offer a window into the difficult tradeoffs between cost, safety and access sometimes confronted by policymakers and insurers at a time of growing angst over drug prices.

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