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Pharmacies across the country are reporting delays to prescription orders due to a cyberattack against one of the nation's largest healthcare technology companies.

Pharmacies were once abundant in the South Side of Chicago. Now, residents living in the majority Black neighborhood often find themselves with few options when it’s time to get a prescription refilled or stock up on cold medicine. Ladell Johnson, a longtime resident of the South Side, drives half an hour from her house to the downtown area every time she needs to pick up her prescription. “Luckily, this pharmacy is close to where I work, but my house is half an hour away by car or one hour by bus,” she said. “If I didn’t have a car, I...

Rite Aid said it will close 150 of its 2,100 US locations after filing for bankruptcy.. CVS is set to close the doors on 900 of its stores by the end of 2024.. Walgreens will shutter 150 stores by summer 2024 - leaving millions in 'pharmacy deserts' . The nation's largest drugstore chains, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens, will shutter more than 1,500 stores, leaving millions of Americans without access to healthcare in 'pharmacy deserts.' Rite Aid said it will close 150 of its 2,100 US locations after they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month. The pharmacy chain...

Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) said Friday on “CNN This Morning” that pharmacies not selling abortion drugs “is so abhorrent at every level.” Hochul said, “Pharmacies have become the new battleground ever since women’s rights were stripped in the overturning Roe v. Wade last June. So we want to make sure we send a preemptive message that despite the threats that you are seeing receiving from Republican attorneys general that here in New York, these rights are protected. We will protect them every inch of the way. If they try to suspend the distribution of this important drug to women in...

More pharmacies are closing in the Bay Area, adding to an already shrinking list of stores. Walgreens recently purchased Pharmaca, which once operated at least seven stores in the Bay Area, and will shutter the company’s shops. Pharmaca’s East Bay locations in Berkeley and Oakland ended pharmacy services Feb. 9, and the store’s retail component is set to end by Feb. 25, according to reporting from the Oaklandside. The only San Francisco location, in Cole Valley, closed in October 2022. There are Pharmaca locations in Mill Valley, Menlo Park, Sonoma, Napa and Novato. exp-player-logo Read More Walgreens recently bought Medly...

NY state's hospital data of fully-vaxxed adults and children is incriminating evidence that the COVID-19 injections are bioweapons and the cause of severe COVID-19 disease and hospitalizations. ... Data from Pfizer, the FDA, and the Cleveland Clinic demonstrate that the COVID-19 mRNA injections increase the for risk COVID-19 infection, and therefore can increase the risk for severe COVID-19 disease and hospitalizations due to VAERD (vaccine-associated enhanced disease). If we follow the science and real-world evidence, this means that the mRNA injections themselves pose a threat to public safety and should be removed from communities to avoid the risk of overwhelming...

Put together two environmentally conscious professionals — a product designer and a pharmacist by trade — and you wind up with biodegradable prescription bottles that are getting traction with consumers. Health sciences startup Parcel Health Inc. of Bellevue has been piloting biodegradable pill bottles at 10 drug stores in eight states, including Pennsylvania, replacing the ubiquitous dark orange plastic bottles used by pharmacists to dispense drugs for decades. Consumer reaction at a West View drug store where they have been introduced has been positive, said Kyle McCormick, founder of Blueberry Pharmacy. “Patients love it,” Mr. McCormick said. “It’s a pretty...

New Hampshire residents may soon be able to receive Ivermectin from pharmacies without first getting a prescription or approval from a doctor. Proposed legislation titled House Bill 1022 would allow pharmacists to dispense the drug, which some believe can treat COVID-19 even though it lacks approval for such use from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), by means of standing orders. Under the law, pharmacists would be able to "dispense ivermectin under the delegated prescriptive authority of the physician or APRN (Advanced Practice Registered Nurses), specify a mechanism to document screening performed and the prescription in the patient's medical...

Walmart and Sam’s Club announced on Tuesday that pharmacy locations nationwide will begin administering walk-up COVID-19 vaccines in addition to pre-scheduled appointments. Vaccine recipients do not have to be a member of Sam’s Club to get the shot, according to a news release. The company, which has more than 5,100 pharmacy locations, also announced an initiative to combat vaccine hesitancy.

The Trump administration has struck a deal with pharmacies across the nation to make the COVID-19 vaccine available more widely and with no out-of-pocket costs.The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Nov. 12 announced that the arrangement would involve both large chain pharmacies and networks representing independent pharmacies and regional chains.Partnership with pharmacy chains covers around 60 percent of pharmacies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These include names like Albertsons, Costco, CVS, Publix, Walgreens, and Walmart, with a complete list available in the HHS release.“We are leveraging...

Rite Aid executives report the pharmacy chain saw a major increase in sales of hydroxychloroquine, the prescription malaria medicine that President Trump has urged Americans to take during the coronavirus pandemic despite some public-health concerns. Rite Aid is not experiencing a shortage of the drug but is closely monitoring supply. Finance chief Matt Schroeder mentioned the increased demand, which he did not quantify, during a Thursday call with analysts to discuss quarterly financial results. Sales of inhalers also are up, he said. For the fourth quarter, the company reported revenue of $5.73 billion and a net loss from continuing operations...

Before entering public service at the federal level, I spent most of my life serving my community in a different way. As a pharmacist for more than 30 years, I saw firsthand the impact that prescription drug prices have on everyday citizens and families. As a result of research and development I have seen improvements in medications that save lives. Illnesses that were once a death sentence are now treatable with a prescription. While this is nothing short of a miracle, these advances are worthless if they are not affordable. I have seen elderly couples forced to choose between their...

BALTIMORE - The immense new CVS dominates the corner of Pennsylvania and West North avenues. It's a contrast that shows what's changed and what hasn't in the past year, since Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died of injuries sustained in police custody, unleashing days of protests. But if 2015's protests emphasized police brutality and race relations, the absence of more stores like CVS that are easily accessible to people in impoverished, predominantly black neighborhoods underscores Baltimore's other persistent inequities. Scarcity defines life in Sandtown-Winchester, the 72-block neighborhood where Gray lived for part of his life. Its roughly 9,000 residents...

Despite growing controversy over the use of anonymous pharmacies for lethal injections, the U.S. Supreme Court has thus far declined to block any executions based on 11th-hour appeals challenging the drug connections. That includes the case of Michael Taylor, a convicted rapist and murderer who was put to death at 12:10 a.m. Wednesday in Missouri after a furious legal battle that stretched well into the night. It's worth nothing, however, that three high court justices wanted to block Taylor's execution and cited the words of an appeals judge who said so little was known about the source of the deadly...

Generic drugs now account for well over 80% of all prescriptions. Just 10 years ago, less than half of drugs sold were generics. Much of the growth is because employers make generics extra-affordable through mail order programs (pharmacy benefits managers). Then you also have the grocery stores and big box retailers who do $4 generics. Meanwhile, a lot of breakthrough drugs that were patent protected are no longer so and are now selling as generics. But what you don't know about the pricing of generics can hurt your wallet. The big pharmacy chains discount generics 30% from the brand name...

San Francisco lawmakers voted Tuesday to make the city the first in the nation to ban the sale of tobacco products at most pharmacies, a move that backers hope will lead to similar laws across the country. The ban has already attracted the attention of Marin County leaders, who may push forward with their own proposal. The ban passed the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on an 8-3 vote, with some supervisors predicting it would be a "first step" toward additional bans on the sale of tobacco in the city. "Whatever we can do to make this country a smoke-free...

Science Daily — An analysis of Milwaukee County pharmacies shows that about half don't provide prescription labels and instructions in languages other than English, and almost two-thirds are unable to communicate to patients who don't speak English. The study, included in the upcoming edition of Pediatrics, is unusual in that its lead author is a Medical College of Wisconsin 4th-year medical student. Michael Bradshaw worked with statistician Sandra Tomany-Korman under the direction of Glenn Flores, M. D., professor of pediatrics. "Language barriers can have major adverse consequences in health care, but little is known about whether pharmacies provide adequate care...

Thousands of Americans who order prescription drugs from Canada have received written notice that their medications have been seized, part of a US government crackdown on the cross-border discount trade. The increase in seizures and the strong legal warnings issued to consumers mark a shift in policy for the Bush administration, which until now has rarely acted against individuals who buy drugs from Canada. [...] Nancy Popkin, a Salem resident who has been ordering the osteoporosis treatment Fosamax from Canadian pharmacies for years, was one of those recently targeted. [...] The notice, from the Department of Homeland Security, US Customs...

Some medications are being pulled from the shelves at 13 New Jersey pharmacies. That's because the they're on a nationwide list of 80 pharmacies that bought prescription drugs from several distributors now under indictment for selling the medications illegally. Federal authorities don't claim the drugs were tampered with. But they can't guarantee that the medications were handled and stored correctly. Officials say about 40 key drugs were involved, including popular medications like Viagra, Lipitor, Zoloft, Singulair and Celebrex. No health problems related to the medications have been reported.

PHOENIX (AP) -- Gov. Janet Napolitano on Wednesday vetoed a bill to let pharmacists refuse to provide abortion-related medications if doing so conflicts with the pharmacists' moral or religious beliefs. Napolitano, an abortion rights supporter, did not immediately release her veto letter but said previously she saw the idea as a way to deny legal drugs to consumers. "You can safely say I view a refusal-to-sell bill with great skepticism," Napolitano said last week. Supporters expressed disappointment with the veto of what one called civil rights legislation for health care professionals and institutions, which could be forced to contribute "to...