EASTERN ROUNDUP
|
Touro College
of Pharmacy Wins APhA Award
Touro
College of Pharmacy, Harlem, N.Y., has been named a 2010 American Pharmacist
Association (APhA) Immunization Champion Award winner, according to an
announcement from Dr. Stuart Feldman, dean.
The award
recognizes the “value and extraordinary contributions pharmacists make by
improving the vaccination rates within their communities.” Touro was among more
than 100 nominees competing for the award, supported by Novartis Vaccines &
Diagnostics, and presented at the APhA’s annual meeting.
According to
Feldman’s announcement, the college earned the award for its partnership with
the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and New York Academy
of Medicine, where faculty, staff and students provided more than 2,000
influenza immunizations in the Harlem community during this past flu season.
Another 604 people were immunized by pharmacists from the college during Harlem
Immunization Week last October.
07/17/10 |

|
|
Pennsylvania
Man Federally Sentenced
for
Prescription Drug Fraud Conspiracy
Curtis
L. Hess, 49, York, Pa., was sentenced to a 16-month term of imprisonment by
United States District Court Senior Judge Edwin M. Kosik for introducing
misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and
mislead. Judge Kosik further ordered him to pay a $18,000 fine. Hess also
forfeited $76,291.80, according to Dennis C. Pfannenschmidt, United States
attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
According to
Pfannenschmidt, beginning in January 2005 and continuing until April 2006, Hess.
through his company, Hess Rx Distribution, smuggled prescription drugs from
Canada into the United States. The drugs, although having similar names and
active ingredients to drugs available in the United States, were not
FDA-approved for marketing and distribution in the United States. Hess
distributed these drugs to pharmacies throughout the country. Patients who
received these drugs from pharmacies were unaware that they had been smuggled
into the United States. Before Hess’ operation was shut down by FDA agents, he
had distributed approximately $475,000 worth of unapproved prescription
pharmaceuticals.
Hess was
charged in September 2009 and later pleaded guilty.
“This
investigation, prosecution and sentencing demonstrates that the FDA takes
seriously the threat posed by those individuals who operate outside the secure
pharmaceutical supply chain by illegally importing and distributing non-FDA
approved products to unsuspecting US consumers,” said Thomas P. Doyle, special
agent in charge, FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, Metro Washington Field
Office. “Those who engage in such criminal conduct will be held liable.”
This case was
investigated by the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal
Investigations and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joseph J. Terz.
07/17/10 |

|
|
College of
Notre Dame Breaks Ground
on School of
Pharmacy Building
College
of Notre Dame of Maryland broke ground on a 25,000-square foot building for its
School of Pharmacy early in May. Construction will be completed by summer 2011.
The cost of the project is approximately $13 million.
The School of
Pharmacy, the first on the campus of a women’s college in the country, welcomed
its first class in fall 2009, according to a release from the school. Nearly 500
applications were received for the 70 seats, with students coming from 15
states. The number of applications for the fall 2010 class nearly doubled, with
more than 950 received for the 70 seats in the second class.
The School of
Pharmacy is a four-year, first professional degree program (doctor of pharmacy)
consisting of 148 credit hours of study. The program’s fourth year is dedicated
to a prescribed set of courses delivered in actual practice settings.
There are
four focus areas used as the basis for the school’s curriculum: leadership
development; women’s health across the lifespan; public health and the care of
diverse populations; and professionalism.
07/17/10 |

|
|
Maryland
Pharmacist Sentenced
A
Reisterstown pharmacist has been
sentenced to six years in federal prison for selling 34,000 prescription
painkillers to a drug dealer, according to a recent article in the Maryland
Pharmacists Association Pharmacy News.
The
pharmacist, 48, was ordered to forfeit $400,000 he was paid for oxycodone, said
the U.S. attorney’s office for Maryland. Court records explain that the
pharmacist told the dealer how to write phony prescriptions for OxyContin and
Percocet then filled them from his Medicine Shoppe pharmacy between 2007 and
2009.
The
attorney’s office continued that the dealer worked with Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) agents to uncover the scheme and record fraudulent
transactions. Alprazolam was purchased from the same pharmacist by another
undercover agent who used forged prescriptions.
07/17/10 |

|
|
NYS Board of
Pharmacy Web Site Redesigned
The
New York State (NYS) Office of the Professions Web page on pharmacy and pharmacy
establishments has undergone an overhaul. All the information previously
available is still on the site: forms needed for pharmacies and pharmacists.
Also
available now are such items as NYS licensee statistics, pharmacies per county
and more.
Check out the
new page at
www.op.nysed.gov/prof/pharm.
07/17/10 |

|
|
New Jersey to
Open Second Pharmacy School
Fairleigh
Dickinson University of Madison, N.J., will invest more than $12 million to open
New Jersey’s second pharmacy school at its campus in Florham Park, according to
recent article in the National Community Pharmacists Association magazine,
America’s Pharmacist.
The school
will enroll its first class of 80 students in the fall of 2013.
“The FDU
School of Pharmacy will help address the growing need for licensed pharmacists
nationwide as a wave of retirements and an aging population place growing
demands on this critical profession,” said J. Michael Adams, FDU president.
07/17/10 |

|
EASTERN PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
|
New York State
Board of Pharmacy
Daniel
Villa, RPh, has been
elected chairperson of the New York State Board of Pharmacy.
07/17/10 |

|
|
New Hampshire
Board of Pharmacy
Gary
Merchant, RPh, has been
appointed a member of the New Hampshire Board of Pharmacy. His appointment will
end October 21, 2014.
07/17/10 |

|
Site Map | Contact Us
|