Effective Medicine

Just recently, the FDA created the LPAD initiative to accelerate the approval of antibacterial and antifungal drugs used to treat rare infections, and this September, the first drug under this initiative was approved—Arikayce. Arikayce is used to treat a rare condition called MAC lung disease, caused by Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) bacteria commonly found in…

Kayla is a pharmacy technician at a retail pharmacy in Lincoln, Nebraska. She’s been there for the past 1.5 years while also completing her training towards becoming an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse. She’s a huge advocate of GoodRx because, in her words, “It’s always a good interaction when patients can save money. Then it was…

Millions have listened to the new podcast series, “Dr. Death,” about a surgeon with a penchant for botching procedures and leaving patients crippled—or worse, dead. And I’ve been hearing concerns from my own patients with the question, “How do I know my surgeon isn’t a Dr. Death?” As a physician, I, like you, listened to…

So, you used GoodRx to compare prices for your prescription and found a less expensive pharmacy. But transferring your prescription is a pain, right? It’s actually easier than you may think! Pharmacies want to make transfers as smooth as possible. Here are a few things you can to do keep things simple. 1) Get in…

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…