Friday, December 19, 2025

ASSOCIATION NEWS

The landscape of primary prevention has changed greatly over the past 15 years and is ever-evolving in the setting of weight loss medications. This session will provide an overview of approaching incorporation of primary prevention into practice with an emphasis on diet and exercise. Practice in applying information will be incorporated into the session through interactive real-world cases to enhance ability to educate and counsel patients and provide realistic, practical recommendations. Join us for a live CE webinar on Thursday, January 8, at 2 p.m. to learn more. The webinar will also be available on demand following the event if your schedule does not allow for live viewing.

Christmas appeared early on Tuesday at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville. The two-year college received a $100,000 donation from TPA Past President Rene Garza and Stonegate Pharmacy. The money is the single largest donation the college has ever received.

"We wanted to help the Hispanic community, specifically their education in the medical fields," Garza said. "This endowment also helps me honor my late father who served that community as pharmacist."

"The Scorpion Community is grateful to Dr. Rene Garza for investing in Texas Southmost College students through his gift of $100,000 to the TSC Foundation scholarship fund," said Adela Garza, President of the college's Board of Trustees. "Just as he has grown Stonegate Pharmacy to become a world-class pharmacy serving people across Texas, he is helping to grow the next generation of health professionals needed in our communities."

Still shopping for last-minute gifts? We have the answer! Make a charitable contribution to the Texas Pharmacy Foundation and help fund the future of pharmacy in Texas. You can dedicate your gift in honor of, or in memory of, a special person in your life. It's easy to do online!

During this season of giving and gratitude, the Texas Pharmacy Association is grateful for your membership and your involvement this past year. Your continued support is vital to our mission to elevate the profession and advance the practice of pharmacy to care for patients. We are proud to represent you!

Texas Pharmacy Today will return to your inbox in three weeks, on January 9, 2026. TPA will notify members of any important developments next week via member alerts if news warrants.

On behalf of the TPA Board of Directors (pictured above), we wish you safe and happy holidays!

STATE NEWS

Texas Southern University has named Aisha Moultry, Pharm.D., Ph.D., M.S. as Interim Dean of College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Moultry is an experienced administrator, educator, and researcher with more than 20 years in higher education, recognized for advancing student success, program development, and institutional growth. A national search for the permanent Dean of COPHS will begin in Spring 2026.

Texas Southern University (December 9, 2025)

The Medicaid Vendor Drug Program will accept stakeholder comments on the following draft changes. The comment period ends Jan. 16, 2026. VDP is considering combining the data from three searches—the Formulary Drug search, Formulary Product search, and Provisional Formulary search—consolidating all NDC information into one search and one data file. The result would be one formulary search including all the drugs and products listed.

Texas Health and Human Services Commission (December 17, 2025) Vendor Drug Program

TDI’s Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) seeks input on the proposed Medical Quality Review Calendar Year 2026 Annual Audit Plan. The proposed plan is to select one audit focused either on the medical necessity and appropriateness of prescribing topical analgesics or on evaluating utilization review agent peer review reports for compliance with Official Disability Guidelines, accepted standards of care, and appropriate reviewer selection.

Texas Department of Insurance (December 17, 2025)

Texas physicians say a rising number of patients are turning to ChatGPT for healthcare advice, and depending on how they're using it, the technology can either help or hinder their care. When used as a diagnostic tool, artificial intelligence can do more harm than good by ramping up health anxiety, causing patients to fixate on conditions they don't have or request tests that don't exist. AI like ChatGPT may also prevent people from seeking care from a doctor when they need it, or even suggest treatments that are unproven or not backed by science.

KTBC-TV (December 16, 2025) Carroll, Bryanna

NATIONAL NEWS

Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), James Comer (R-Ky.) and Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) added to the suite of significant PBM reform bills currently pending in Congress by reintroducing the Pharmacists Fight Back Act. It joins other significant PBM reform bills that are currently pending in Congress, such as the PBM Reform Act (H.R. 4317) and the PBM Price Transparency and Accountability Act (S. 3345), which include the PBM reforms that nearly passed last December in the original Continuing Resolution package.

Rep. Diana Harshbarger (December 11, 2025)

A national coalition of pharmacy groups sent a joint letter to Congressional leadership urging immediate action on comprehensive pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform. Citing accelerating pharmacy closures, inflated prescription drug costs, and shrinking patient access to the pharmacy of their choice, the groups warn that the failure to address harmful PBM practices “is no longer a crisis in the making — it now constitutes a crisis unaddressed.”

National Association of Chain Drug Stores (December 12, 2025) 

On Monday, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) sent CVS Health CEO David Joyner a letter pressing him on the company's history of fraud, regulatory violations, role in driving up health care expenses, and evasion of compliance with government requests. She notes that CVS is incredibly vertically integrated and that all their companies have profited because of government spending.

United States Senate (December 15, 2025) Blackburn, Marsha

In a conference call with clinicians, CDC flu division medical officers recommended flu vaccines for anyone ages 6 months or older. There were 288 recorded pediatric deaths and 37 acute necrotizing encephalopathy cases related to flu last year, mostly among unvaccinated children. Most cases subtyped this year by the CDC involve influenza A(H3N2) subclade K, which is also circulating globally.

Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (December 11, 2025) Soucheray, Stephanie

The FDA has no plans to put a “black box” warning on Covid vaccines, the agency’s top official said, despite a recent report that US regulators were preparing to add a new caution to the immunizations. CNN reported last Friday that the FDA was preparing to change the safety information related to the shots to include its strongest level of warning. But on Monday, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said that “we have no plans to put that on the Covid vaccine.”

Bloomberg (December 15, 2025) Smith, Gerry

Medical experts are concerned that a July panel discussion convened by the FDA could lead to more cases of untreated depression. Many of the 10 members of the panel expressed concern about the use of SSRIs, such as Zoloft, during pregnancy. While the discussion did not represent any official FDA guidance, the panelists linked the drugs to increased risks of miscarriage, birth defects, and autism in children exposed to them in utero.

KFF Health News (December 15, 2025) Rab, Lisa

President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to reschedule marijuana to a lower drug classification, one of the most significant changes to drug policy in decades. Moving the drug to a lower schedule does not change the fact that it remains illegal for recreational use at the federal level. But it could open the door to more research into marijuana and expanded medical uses.

CBS News (December 18, 2025) Navarro, Aaron and Walsh, Joe

Flu activity is low in most of the US, except for Colorado, Louisiana, New Jersey and New York, according to CDC data, and although severity indicators are increasing, they still are in range for a mild season. Respiratory syncytial virus season usually peaks in December or January but also is off to a late start. Only about 7% of children and 15% of adults have received this season's COVID-19 vaccine.

Associated Press (December 12, 2025) Stobbe, Mike

Several drugmakers are expected to sign pricing agreements with the Trump administration on Friday, according to four people familiar with the plans, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The agreements would be the latest in a series of deals in which pharmaceutical companies agree to lower drug prices and invest more domestically in exchange for avoiding tariffs and other benefits, such as fast-tracked drug reviews.

Stat (December 17, 2025) Payne, Daniel

President Trump on Monday signed an executive order to designate fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction,” dramatically escalating his fight against the drug. As part of an Oval Office event, he signed the order as he warned against the “scourge” of fentanyl. “No bomb does what this is doing,” Trump said, attributing 200,000 to 300,000 deaths each year to the drug.

The Hill (December 15, 2025) Samuels, Brett

TRENDING NEWS

About 1 in 5 U.S. adults skip filling a prescription due to its cost at least once a year. And 1 in 3 take steps to cut their prescription drug costs, such as splitting pills when it’s not medically necessary or switching to an over-the-counter drug instead of the one that their medical provider prescribed. As pharmacy professors who research prescription drug access, we think it’s important for Americans to know that it is possible to get prescriptions filled more affordably.

The Conversation (December 16, 2025) Ramachandran, Sujith and Pate, Adam

As PBMs have grown in both size and influence, they have attracted scrutiny from regulators, Congressional investigators, and consumer groups for their pricing and reimbursement practices. In recent years, the size, pricing power, and ability of PBMs and pharmacies to control public access to drugs has led regulatory agencies to view them less as functionary players in the healthcare ecosystem and more as influential gatekeepers.

National Law Review (December 11, 2025) Andrews, Brook and Mullins, Nelson

The latest data on respiratory illness in the United States shows that shoppers and merry-makers are spreading more than just holiday cheer: They’re also passing around germs. In many cases, it’s a new virus variant that’s been causing early and busy flu seasons in Asia, Australia and Europe. The US is on the cusp of finding out what this flu variant, called subclade K, will do.

CNN (December 13, 2025) Goodman, Brenda

Pediatrician Kristin Sohl has lost count of how many times parents of children with autism have asked her for a prescription for leucovorin — the drug thrust into the spotlight after President Donald Trump touted it at a White House event this fall. Since September, despite the rising queries, Sohl has typically told her patients no. Early clinical trials of the drug showed hints of promise in boosting communication and cognition for some children with autism.

Washington Post (December 14, 2025) Eunjung Cha, Ariana

When HCA Healthcare recently told employees it would stop covering blockbuster obesity drugs Zepbound and Wegovy next year, it pointed them to an alternative way to get the treatments: Buy them themselves. In a notice, HCA said use of the GLP-1 weight loss drugs surged 90% this year, “significantly” raising costs. It instead suggested employees enroll in discount programs introduced by the drugs’ manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.

Stat (December 18, 2025) Chen, Elaine

An analysis of 611 updates to pediatric drug labels over 26 years found that 53.8% of cases only had solid oral adult formulations available, even for children younger than 12. The study in the journal Pediatrics found that pediatric-friendly formulations were discontinued about four times more often than adult formulations and only 56% had guidance on modifying adult formulations for pediatric use.

Medscape (December 10, 2025) Rai, Archita

Kenvue Inc. is dealing with another challenge to a top-selling product as it attempts to close its $40 billion acquisition by Kimberly-Clark Corp. Recently three doctors filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration that requested the agency remove the active ingredient — diphenhydramine — in over-the-counter cold, cough and allergy medications such as Kenvue’s Benadryl because there are more effective products with fewer side effects.

Bloomberg (December 16, 2025) Brown, Redd

A long-running legal dispute between the state of Louisiana and CVS over the role of pharmacy benefit managers may soon be resolved with settlements. The conflict accelerated when CVS sent messages to customers warning about state legislation that would ban pharmacy benefit managers from owning retail pharmacies. Eventually, the state filed three lawsuits in June. The company said its policies were intended to save its customers money.

WBRZ-TV (December 15, 2025) Marigny, Alexis

Measles outbreaks are spreading across the U.S., and the nation is likely to lose its status as a country where the disease is eliminated, something that infectious disease specialists say is directly related to President Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This has been the worst year for measles in the U.S. in recent history.

The Hill (December 13, 2025) Choi, Joseph

The 340B Drug Pricing Program continued its rapid expansion in 2024 and reached a record $81.4 billion, up 23% from the previous year, with hospitals accounting for 87% of purchases. Studies indicate that this expansion is primarily driven by increased utilization and strategic choices by hospitals and clinics, rather than by rising drug prices, but regulatory changes are expected to slow this growth and introduce new transparency requirements.

Drug Channels (December 15, 2025) Fein, Adam

Texas Pharmacy Today
Editor: Brian Sparks, Division Director, Communications and Marketing
(512) 615-9140 • bsparks@texaspharmacy.org

Texas Pharmacy Association
RoxAnn Dominguez, Pharm.D., Chief Executive Officer
(512) 615-9147