The New York Times reports on the Newark hospital’s drug-delivery program

NEWARK — Newark’s Newark Hospital has become a key testing site for a wide range of medications used in a growing number of treatments.

The New Jersey Department of Health reports that it received 1,829 orders for Newark-branded prescription drugs in the first half of 2018, up from 918 the previous year. 

The city also had more than 4,000 prescriptions filled in the month of July for the same drugs, up more than 40 percent from the same month last year, the department reported.

The city is now using a pilot program to deliver Newark-brand medications to doctors who prescribe the same brand of drugs to patients in other cities.

Dr. Anthony J. Zappone, chief of emergency medicine at Newark Health Care System, told Bloomberg News on Tuesday that the city had ordered about $20 million worth of Newark-made drugs from a pharmacy chain.

Newman, which is located about 30 miles north of New York City, has a population of about 3 million people, or 5 percent of the state.