Pharmacy

Walgreens on Sunday formally cut ties with blood-testing startup Theranos and will immediately close all 40 Theranos Wellness Centers at its stores in Arizona.

The Food and Drug Administration removed an obstacle from of its "compassionate use" policy this month, eliminating some paperwork that physicians must do to obtain experimental drugs for some patients with immediately life-threatening illnesses.

This prototype machine produces 1,000 pills in 24 hours, faster than it can take to produce some batches in a factory. Allan Myerson, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT and a leader of the effort, says it could become eventually an option for anyone who makes medications, which typically require a lengthy and complex process of crystallization.

The experiment begins Wednesday at the VA's operations in Palo Alto, California. Veterans can visit 14 "MinuteClinics" operated by CVS in the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento, where staff will treat them for conditions such as respiratory infections, order lab tests and prescribe medications, which can be filled at CVS pharmacies. Whether the partnership will spread to other VA locales isn't yet clear.

Amid a raging opioid epidemic, many doctors and families in the U.S. have been pleading for better treatment alternatives. One option now under consideration by the Food and Drug Administration is a system of implanted rods that offer controlled release of buprenorphine -- a drug already used in other forms to treat opioid addiction.

A broad proposal by Medicare to change the way it pays for some drugs has drawn intense reaction and lobbying, with much of the debate centering on whether the plan gives too much power over drug prices to government regulators.

Cigna said it would tap into its experience with prevention, wellness and chronic disease management programs to will work with clients, physicians and others to develop ways to increase prevention and treatment of substance use disorders.

The problems were traced to the compounding pharmacy lab at Paradise Valley Hospital in National City, California, where inspectors found "dust, stains and foreign material" in a supposedly sterile environment in which thousands of intravenous medications were prepared over eight months -- from Jan. 1 to Aug. 18.

The stakes are high for the companies and CalPERS, which is struggling along with many employers nationwide to contain fast-rising drug costs.

Proposed Medicare Part B drug payment models threaten medical practices and patients who are already financially strained due to the price of needed treatment, physicians told a House Energy and Commerce Committee Tuesday.