Drug industry pays for Mo. cold medicine database
08.03.10
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri selected a company Monday to develop a database for tracking purchases of cold medicine that can be used to make methamphetamine.
Since 2005, Missouri has kept a paper log that law officers can check later to track purchases of cold medications containing pseudoephedrine. A 2008 law required the development of electronic logs allowing real-time monitoring, but plans to expand the tracking system stalled because it was not funded.
Appriss Inc., a technology company based in Louisville, Ky., was selected to develop the new electronic monitoring system. Appriss already operates a system that links 18,000 pharmacies in nearby states.
Gov. Jay Nixon said Monday that pharmaceutical companies have agreed to pay for developing and operating the new database. Nixon, a Democrat, said real-time tracking of cold medication purchases would help law officers and ensure Missourians can buy medicine needed for legitimate purposes.
People who are rejected when trying to buy cold medication would receive a receipt with Appriss' phone number and instructions to call the company for an explanation. The new system would be designed to spot fake identification, to flag multiple people buying medicine and reporting the same address and other suspicious activity.
Source: The Associated Press
Police Blotter: Tailgate stolen off F150 Ford truck in Boca Raton.
10.03.10
Boca Raton
THEFT
A woman was arrested for stealing two boxes of Claritin allergy tablets and one box of Aqua Fresh white strips from a pharmacy in the 1000 block of South Federal Highway.
The tailgate of a 2007 Ford F150 truck was stolen in the 4800 block of Northwest Second Avenue.
A man was arrested for stealing bowling shoes from a bowling alley in the 21000 block of Commercial Trail.
A $3.19 energy drink was stolen from a pharmacy in the 600 block of West Glades Road.
Two men were arrested at the same pharmacy for stealing two boxes of Tussin cough medicine.
Sunglasses worth $1,264 were stolen from a store in the 6000 block of West Glades Road by a woman observed on a security camera and arrested.
BEVERAGE VIOLATION
A cashier at a gas station in the 100 block of Northwest 20th Street was arrested for selling alcohol to someone younger than 21 years of age.
TRESPASS
Someone entered a chapel in the 400 block of Southwest Fourth Avenue and turned over a table, put the seat cushions on the floor, went through several mausoleums and knocked over a fountain, several trash cans, and flower vases.
Source: Palm Beach Post
Maybe a Merck Drug Swap With J&J Could Make Its Remicade Headache Go Away
19.02.10
Merck (MRK) could give Claritin and its other consumer brands to Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) in exchange for keeping some of its rights to Remicade , the $2.3 billion arthritis and psoriasis blockbuster that the two companies market jointly.
That’s a speculative solution to the ongoing legal fight between Merck and J&J proposed by Tim Anderson , an analyst at Sanford Bernstein , in a recent note to investors.
The two companies are scheduled to enter arbitration in September. Anderson believes they’ll settle before then. Merck will certainly be anxious to get a deal done on Remicade, as its merger with Schering-Plough was a bet-the-farm move dependent on not losing Remicade to J&J.
Back story: Merck and Schering went through a ridiculously complicated set of legal
Source: BNET
Inc. (MRK), whose brands include Claritin, Coppertone, Lotrimin, Propecia, Singulair and Vytorin, is scheduled to discuss its fourth-quarter and full-year
Merck (MRK) could give Claritin and its other consumer brands to Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) in exchange for keeping some of its
You can prevent them by taking a non-sedating histamine1 blocker, such as claritin, before you drink the wine. The congeners linking with serotonin