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

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