Legislative and regulatory efforts to address controlled substance diversion and overuse of narcotics are affecting prescription drug utilization and patient care. These initiatives can influence formulary drug selection, prior authorization procedures, and drug utilization strategies.

CONTEXT Our objectives were to investigate the timeliness of formulary decision-making in Atlantic Canada, including the Common Drug Review (CDR) process and the adoption of positive CDR recommendations by Atlantic Canadian provincial public drug plans, and to determine the degree of cost shifting to private payers. METHODS Dates of formulary listing decisions from Atlantic Canadian provincia...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Probiotics, including Saccharomyces boulardii, have been advocated for the prevention of Clostridium difficile infection. The aim of this project was to evaluate the effects of the removal of S. boulardii from an automatic antibiotic order set and hospital formulary on hospital onset C. difficile infection rates. DESIGN A retrospective chart review was performed on all pat...

Dashmulakwatha, a preparation of Dashmula official in the Ayurvedic Formulary, was estimated for its phytosterol content by HPTLC method. The preparation was found to contain 7.165% W/W of phytosterols with respect to β-sitosterol as standard.

Generic versions of Prozac (fluoxetine) have been available to patients for approximately 18 months, and a court decision is expected this month on whether generic Paxil (paroxetine hydrochloride) may be marketed. Yet in the face of this, several SSRI brands have increased HMO drug formulary access. We analyzed 2001 and 2003 data from MediMedia’s Formulary Compass database for the HMO market. G...