Another month, another round of price increases. This September, six popular drugs saw substantial price increases, by as much as 9.8% in some cases. The GoodRx Index also featured the following trends in the month of September: Flu season is starting. Prescription fills for popular cold and flu medications surged in September. Actimmune, used to…

Even as US health officials set their sights on eradicating HIV, fills for the revolutionary HIV prevention drug Truvada have sharply declined since 2015 as patients face surging prices, poor coverage, insurance biases and skeptical doctors. Introduced in 2012, Truvada for PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a mixture of two medications, emtricitabine and tenofovir, that prevent…

Back in March 2018, manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals discontinued sales of the popular asthma inhaler Qvar, and released a new device known as the Qvar RediHaler. Some claim that RediHaler is easier to use with a new spacer-free design and breath-actuated inhalation, but others argue that this rebranding was a way for Teva to hold onto…

People with asthma often experience anxiety and depression. And on the flip side, depression is associated with poor adherence to medication and worse asthma outcomes. So, what’s the connection between these health conditions?   Then, there’s the question of whether asthma medications themselves cause depression. In 2009, the FDA required packaging for the Singulair generic,…

In the US, 82% of adults and up to 24% of kids under the age of 18 take at least one prescription medication each month. But as a pharmacy technician, you know all too well that the process from getting a diagnosis to picking up a prescription is often complicated. First, patients have to choose…

Medicines are often approved by the FDA under different strengths, formulations and uses. Advil comes as both a tablet and capsule, for example; Singulair is approved for asthma and allergic rhinitis; and antibiotic cephalexin comes in 250 mg, 500 mg and 750 mg capsules. But some medicines have approved uses that depend on a specific…

Did you know that there are certain medications out there that can cause forms of kidney damage? Don’t get me wrong. These medications can be life-altering and even life-saving—but they are known to directly affect kidney function. Medications that can damage the kidneys are known as “nephrotoxic medications.” These drugs can cause direct toxicity to the…

In 2000, measles was finally declared eradicated from the US thanks to a mass vaccination campaign. Vaccinations were up and measles cases were down by 99%. Now, the opposite trend is occurring. Vaccination rates are declining, and measles outbreaks have happened as recently as 2015. There are two vaccines available in the US that protect…

Newer classes of medications have transformed diabetes care and cancer treatment, but is newer always better? Patients often ask me if there is something “newer” than their current medication and if they should switch. My answer? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Here are 11 medications that have been around forever (and I’m talking some from the…

Treatments for hepatitis C are notoriously expensive, and the price for Harvoni is no different. Patients typically take Harvoni for 12 weeks, and the list price for a one-month supply runs at $31,500 for 28 tablets—or $1,125 per tablet—making Harvoni the ninth most expensive drug in the United States. We’re not kidding. Harvoni’s manufacturer, Gilead,…