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| Jun 14, 2024 | Health | Biden plan to save Medicare patients money on drugs risks empty shelves, pharmacists say | “We cannot interfere in the negotiations that occur between the plans and pharmacy benefits managers,” Meena Seshamani, director of the Center for Medicare, said at a conference on June 7. “We cannot tell a plan how much to pay a pharmacy o... |
| Mar 17, 2024 | Should the DOJ Break Up UnitedHealth Group? | Consider this: Aside from being the largest health insurance player in the country, UnitedHealth Group also
Employs or contracts with thousands of physicians
Owns OptumRx, one of the top three largest pharmacy benefit managers
Has spent mor... |
| Dec 5, 2023 | How Mark Cuban forced the biggest US pharmacy to upend its business | Christopher Willard/Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/Insider
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CVS just announced it's changing how prescription drugs get priced at its pharmacies.
The new program includes a set markup for medication costs, a step toward drug ... |
| Nov 30, 2023 | Expert: The Rumored Humana/Cigna Combination Makes Sense | Cigna and Humana are rumored to be in talks to combine through a stock-and-cash deal, which would create a company comparable in size to UnitedHealthcare and CVS/Aetna, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday. The rumo... |
| Jul 5, 2023 | Sen. Bill Cassidy: Smart, practical ways to lower drug prices | In the 1952 Oscar-winning movie “High Noon,” Gary Cooper’s face was tense and pained as he single-handedly faced a gang of killers. The pain wasn’t acting: Cooper suffered from severe stomach ulcers. He drank milk to get some relief, but cl... |
| Mar 14, 2023 | New Drug Channels Institute Study Analyzes Impact of Inflation Reduction Act on U.S. Prescription Market | The 2023 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers Beginning this year, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) will alter many crucial aspects of the Medicare Part D program and the overall drug channel.
PHILADELPH... |
| Mar 1, 2023 | By Capping Out-Of-Pocket Price, Eli Lilly Could Transform Insulin Market | This photo shows a vial of Eli Lilly's Humalog insulin. Eli Lilly will cut prices for several of its ... [+] insulin products later this year and introduce a monthly cap of $35 in out-of-pocket costs for commercially insured and uninsured p... |
| Feb 8, 2023 | Biden’s SOTU Targets Drug Companies, But Misses Opportunity To Challenge Health Insurers And Pharmacy Benefit Managers | In January, drug makers announce increases in list prices of drugs, which can negatively impact ... [+] patients. Health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers also implement changes in drug coverage, to the detriment of patients.getty |
| Jan 20, 2023 | Even with lawsuits and copay caps, will insulin ever be affordable? | In an attempt to tackle the root causes of inflated insulin prices, the state of California filed a lawsuit last week accusing drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers of artificially and illegally jacking up the price of insulin.
T... |
| Jan 5, 2023 | Aspirations 2023: What I Hope To See Happen In Healthcare And Public Health (But Probably Won’t) | In 2023, let's start building a better healthcare system that has the patient as its focal point.getty |
| Dec 28, 2022 | Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer wants to make getting healthcare as easy as going to your neighborhood pharmacy | Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Roz Brewer is the second Black woman in history to be named a permanent CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Walgreens
Rosalind "Roz" Brewer knows what it's like to be "the first" or "the only.... |
| Dec 6, 2022 | Consumer Health: Areas of Opportunity | In a market full of bears, we are bulls when it comes to consumer health companies. In our last piece, we made the bold claim that a consumer health tech company will become the biggest company in the world. In this piece, we will dive more... |
| Nov 13, 2022 | How To Get Away With Corporate Murder: Unbundling And Disrupting Pharmacy Benefit Managers (Part 1) | This two-part article was researched and written in partnership with Cathy DuRei, President of Rumbly Health. |
| Nov 2, 2022 | Should Mark Cuban Make CVS, Walgreens And Amazon Worry? | (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)Getty Images |
| Oct 11, 2022 | New Drug Channels Institute Study: U.S. Drug Distribution Industry Expands as COVID-19 Disruption Fades and Biosimilars Boom | The 2022–23 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will trigger multiple changes in pharmacy and provider markets that will negatively impact wholesalers, although wholes... |
| Oct 5, 2022 | HHS Implements Inflationary Rebates For List Prices Of Medicare Part D (Outpatient) Drugs | Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), speaks at Germanna Community College ... [+] in Culpeper, Virginia, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. On October 1st, Becerra's Department of HHS began implementing one of the dr... |
| Sep 23, 2022 | Market share isn’t the only metric for biosimilars’ success | Market share is often held up as the most relevant metric for the success of a biosimilar class. I believe there are other metrics, like cost savings or signs of greater patient access, that should also be used to define biosimilars’ succes... |
| Sep 8, 2022 | Launch prices: tackling the next drug pricing challenge | The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act brings a new era to drug pricing in the United States. After decades of being an outlier, it now joins every other developed nation in having the federal government engaged in negotiating drug pric... |
| Jun 30, 2022 | Gun Safety Bill Extends Drug Middlemen Protection From Anti-Kickback Measure | FILE - In this June 15, 2018, file photo, pharmaceuticals are seen in North Andover, Mass. President ... [+] Joe Biden’s call for authorizing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices has energized Democrats on a politically popu... |
| Mar 15, 2022 | New Drug Channels Institute Study Examines Consolidation and Vertical Integration of U.S. Prescription Market | 2022 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers For 2021, more than 80% of all equivalent prescription claims were processed by three companies: CVS Health (including Caremark and Aetna); the Express Scripts business o... |
| Feb 18, 2022 | Amgen, Ipsen vet moves up the ladder with Coherus' anti-PD-1 awaiting PDUFA; It takes a village to replace Frank Clyburn at Merck's Human Health business | Paul Reider
After decades in the biopharma industry, Paul Reider is now in his first C-suite role as chief commercial officer. While he has been at Coherus BioSciences since last year, he officially started his new job on Jan. 1, and it was... |
| Jan 4, 2022 | Multiple blockbusters from Gilead, Pfizer, Vertex see (list) price hikes to start 2022 | Kicking off 2022, hundreds of pharmaceuticals, including some blockbusters, saw their list prices rise by about 5% on average. But overall, net drug prices (cost after rebates) declined for the fourth year in a row, potenti... |
| Dec 12, 2021 | Comprehensive Regulatory Reform From The Bottom Up: The Case Of 340B | Regulation ASSOCIATED PRESS |
| Jun 29, 2021 | Walmart Announces Its Own Brand of Low-Cost Analog Insulin | Walmart Inc. will offer its own brand of analog insulin for people with diabetes, an effort to boost its pharmacy business and counter Amazon.com Inc.’s recent push to sell more medications.
The world’s largest retailer will begin selling R... |
| Jun 7, 2021 | Under ‘threat’ of fines, Novartis sues HHS over drug pricing program | The biopharma industry is not taking the threat of even modest civil monetary penalties lightly, as Novartis last week sued the Biden administration’s HHS over plans to assess such penalties for changes that the compani... |
| Mar 16, 2021 | New Drug Channels Institute Study: The Latest Trends for U.S. Drug Pricing, Reimbursement, and Patient Costs | Total prescription dispensing revenues of retail, mail, long-term care, and specialty pharmacies reached a record $465 billion in 2020. Specialty drugs accounted for nearly 40% of these revenues—and an even greater share of payers’ net pres... |
| Feb 2, 2021 | Biden Administration’s Methodical Approach To Drug Price Reform | WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 26: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the coronavirus pandemic in the ... [+] State Dining Room of the White House on January 26, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)Getty Images |
| Jan 28, 2021 | Do Americans Really Pay Triple The Price Paid By Foreign Countries For Drugs? | getty |
| Jan 12, 2021 | What Could A Healthcare Marketplace Look Like? GoodRx Is Trying To Show Us | GoodRx qualified as a unicorn prior to its IPO, but its story and ambition is rare enough that it may warrant a new mythological creature dedication. Founded in 2011, the nine year-old digital health company went public last September with ... |
| Jan 5, 2021 | Drug Prices Increase And Biopharma Bashing Returns | It’s an annual ritual. In the first week of January, drug companies announce their annual price increases. In turn, industry critics attack. Despite all that biopharma has done to fight the pandemic, some people seem to lie in wait to pounc... |
| Jan 5, 2021 | Insulin’s Out-Of-Pocket Cost Burden To Diabetic Patients Continues To Rise Despite Reduced Net Costs To PBMs | MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/09/05: Advocates outside of Eli Lilly's offices at ... [+] Alexandria Center for Life Science, 450 E 29th Street in New York City demand lower out-of-pocket costs for diabetic patients. (Photo by Er... |
| Dec 7, 2020 | U.S. Healthcare Markets Lack Transparency; Stakeholders Want To Keep It That Way | Disconnection between dollars spent and outcomes achieved in the U.S. healthcare systemGetty |
| Dec 3, 2020 | Will 2021 Be Another Break-Through Year For Biosimilars? | A Basalog One insulin glargine disposable pen. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg© 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP |
| Dec 1, 2020 | The U.S. must support access to care and incentives for the innovation that transforms it | The deadly spread of Covid-19 around the world has highlighted the importance of innovation and cooperation between the various actors in the U.S. health care system. It has shown what can be achieved in an environment that rewards innovati... |
| Mar 6, 2020 | Five years on, biosimilars need support from all health care players | Today marks a milestone for the U.S. biosimilar market: the FDA approved our first biosimilar, Sandoz’s Zarxio, five years ago, on March 6, 2015.
The biosimilar category holds incredible promise, and the market for these products is on an u... |
| Aug 22, 2019 | Does HHS have zero negotiating power in drug pricing? | In the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 that established Medicare Part D (the drug benefit coverage under Medicare), it is written that “the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary may not interfere with the negotiations between drug ma... |
| Jul 30, 2019 | Pharma leaders: support the social contract on drug prices | When I was 13 years old, my doctor told me I had Crohn’s disease, a painful gastrointestinal condition that swells the intestines and threatens the digestive tract. Breakthrough treatments like Remicade, Enbrel, and Humira were still decade... |
| Jul 11, 2019 | State drug importation laws undermine the process that keeps our supply chain safe | Three states — Vermont, Florida, and Colorado — recently passed laws that legalize the importation of prescription drugs. Other states are considering similar legislation. Legislators in those states believe that drugs can be safely sourced... |
| Jun 1, 2018 | Mergers between health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers could be bad for your health | Pharmacy benefit managers, which long ran under the public radar, now have President Trump’s attention. In a recent speech on drug pricing, he called out “the dishonest double-dealing that allows the middleman to pocket rebates and discount... |
| Apr 26, 2018 | Amazon failed to disrupt the prescription drug business with Drugstore.com. Could a second try succeed? | The headlines, spurred by Amazon’s entry into the pharmacy business, were as entertaining as they were exuberant. One hailed the company’s 1999 investment in Drugstore.com as “a likely gold mine.” In Canada, the Globe and Mail predicted a s... |
| Apr 18, 2018 | Which drug makers are most vulnerable to a new cost-shifting maneuver? | Over the past year, pharmacy benefit managers have deployed a new weapon against the widely used but controversial copay assistance programs that drug makers distribute to consumers. Clumsily called copay accumulators, these are raising a c... |
| Aug 25, 2017 | Medication Adherence Tech: A dynamic and crowded market, but where are the winners in the space? (Part 1 of 2) | About the Authors: @DanGebremedhin is a Principal at Flare Capital Partners, an early stage Health Technology and Services focused VC Firm. He is a practicing physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, previously served as a Medical D... |
| Nov 1, 2016 | Pharmalot, Pharmalittle: Is the 21st Century Cures bill in doubt over drug prices? | Top of the morning to you, and a fine one it is. A warm sun is shining here on the Pharmalot campus, where the shortest person has left for the local schoolhouse and the official mascots are snoozing contentedly on the official Pharmalot of... |
| Oct 7, 2016 | Pharmalot, Pharmalittle: To avoid scandal, Novartis CEO advises companies not to hire rulebreakers | And so, another working week will soon draw to a close. Not a moment too soon, yes? This is, you may recall, our treasured signal to daydream about weekend plans. Once again, our agenda is rather modest. We expect to manicure the Pharmalot ... |
| Mar 17, 2016 | Obama proposal to revamp Medicare Part B faces more opposition | Just days after the Obama administration unveiled an experiment to revamp the Medicare Part B program, more than 300 hundred groups representing physicians, drug makers, and patients are urging the government to withdraw its proposal.
Altho... |
| Feb 17, 2016 | Pharmalot, Pharmalittle: Couple pledges millions to lower drug prices, more TV ads for speciality meds | Hello, everyone, and how are you today? We are just fine, thank you, especially since we have made it to the middle of the week. Even during a shortened workweek, this is a milestone worth celebrating. So please join us as we quaff a few cu... |
| Jun 6, 2013 | An eBay for pharmaceuticals connects hospital purchasers with secondary wholesalers | When that happens, purchasers likely turn to the robust market of secondary wholesalers. But the process by which they do that isn’t so smooth. It’s often done by email, phone or fax, Godfrey said, and is limited by the small staff of small... |
| Apr 1, 2013 | Yoga for pets and fish oil stations: 5 health-centric April Fools Day pranks | Near the top of my Google Reader this morning was this headline from the blog Drug Channels:
That’s right – Walmart’s adding liposuction, and it’s rolling back the price to just $249.99.
This clever spoof email was sent out by fitness start... |
| May 14, 2012 | Cardinal Health to buy drug distributor Dik Drug | Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Dik last week, and the deal is expected to close later this summer.
Dik is a closely held, nearly 100-year-old company with customers mostly in the Midwest. Fein p... |
| Apr 12, 2012 | McKesson beats Cardinal, AmerisourceBergen for big VA drug distribution contract | The contract calls for McKesson to supply pharmaceuticals to 700 VA locations, including mail-order pharmacies and 270 medical centers. The initial two-year contract comes with two three-year options, which means it could run for a total of... |
| Nov 30, 2011 | Rivals threaten to take wind from Watson’s generic Lipitor sales | Lipitor was launched in 1997 and at its peak had sales of $13 billion.
As Barrons puts it, citing Canaccord Genuity analyst Randall Stanicky, with no less than three companies entering or hoping to enter the generic Lipitor market, there’s ... |
| Apr 6, 2011 | ‘Generic wave’ to drive Cardinal Health’s profitability in coming years | Promoted
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| Mar 2, 2011 | Most secure pharma sales rep jobs? Specialty drugs and hospitals (Morning Read) | Venture capital conflict of interest? VCs trading shares of private companies on secondary markets in personal accounts “pose a potential minefield for firms raising new funds.”
On the bright side: People afflicted with chronic disease are ... |
| Dec 29, 2010 | Cardinal Health’s dependence on top customers leaves it ‘vulnerable’ | Cardinal Health’s (NYSE:CAH) renewal of a key drug distribution contract with Walgreen Co. earlier this month brings renewed focus on a longstanding problem: how heavily reliant Cardinal is on its top two customers.
Those top two customers ... |
| Nov 30, 2010 | Has Cardinal Health started era of the global drug distributor? | Promoted
This Patient Experience Checklist Is Your Key To Success in 2021
As healthcare systems strive to recover from losses due to the pandemic, patient acquisition and retention have never been more urgent, and patient experience has nev... |
| Free market is at risk because of PBM titans’ anti-competitive behaviors | We’ve been here before, right? A Congress and Administration eager to talk about mysterious escalating prescription drug prices. Over the years, both bodies have sought to close loopholes and require more transparency of pharmacy benefit ma... |
| Yoga for pets and fish oil stations: 5 health-centric April Fools Day pranks | Jets with glass floors. A Twitter without vowels. Thanks to the internet, everyone can participate in April Fools Day pranks. Although it’s a little harder to make light-hearted jokes about healthcare, a few organizations found a way. Thank... |
| Most secure pharma sales rep jobs? Specialty drugs and hospitals (Morning Read) | The safest pharma sales rep jobs: Sales rep positions for drugmakers haven’t exactly been the surest bets for staying employed, but that’s not true for everyone in the profession. A new survey shows that pharmaceuticals firms expect to add ... |
| Has Cardinal Health started era of the global drug distributor? | With Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE:CAH) buying a Chinese pharmaceuticals distributor, the Ohio company has become the first of the three major U.S. drug distributors to make a big investment outside North America.
But it likely won’t be the la... |
| Rivals threaten to take wind from Watson’s generic Lipitor sales | Watson Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:WPI) has launched its generic version of Pfizer’s (NYSE:PFE) blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor, as part of an agreement for what it calls the largest generic drug launch in U.S. history.
The launch of the gen... |
| Cardinal Health’s dependence on top customers leaves it ‘vulnerable’ | Cardinal Health’s (NYSE:CAH) renewal of a key drug distribution contract with Walgreen Co. earlier this month brings renewed focus on a longstanding problem: how heavily reliant Cardinal is on its top two customers.
Those top two customers ... |
| ‘Generic wave’ to drive Cardinal Health’s profitability in coming years | Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) and pharmaceuticals distributors of its ilk will have few better friends over the coming years than generic drugs.
The so-called “generic wave” — created by scores of brand-name drugs whose patents are expiring be... |
| Cardinal Health to buy drug distributor Dik Drug | Consolidation in the U.S. drug distribution business continues as Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) has purchased a Chicago-area regional drug wholesaler, Dik Drug Company.
The acquisition was first reported by Adam Fein at Drug Channels and confi... |
| 9 top advertisers who are looking at dumping their agencies, and who could win the accounts instead | Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
Much of the ad industry came to a halt in March as the pandemic led marketers to slash spending and delay ... |
| A group backed by huge companies like Walmart and Boeing is fighting back against the drug-industry middlemen in trouble for overcharging customers | Elizabeth Mitchell, the CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health PBGH This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
Employers are fed up with the secretive ways drug-industry middl... |
| Does HHS have zero negotiating power in drug pricing? | The Senate Finance Committee recently unveiled a bipartisan bill to lower drug prices for seniors. In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s latest draft of drug price legislation would also allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices directly... |
| An eBay for pharmaceuticals connects hospital purchasers with secondary wholesalers | To hear Samantha Godfrey tell it, Pharmly is “optimizing the pharmaceutical supply-chain cycle for medical facilities.” In real terms, it’s matchmaking for pharmaceutical buyers and the wholesale suppliers who have the drugs they need.
Godf... |
| Powerful drug-industry middlemen have quietly launched businesses to get better deals from drugmakers. It could drive up costs for patients. | Crystal Cox/Business Insider This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
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Powerful drug-industry middlemen have quietly reorganized the prescription-drug supply chain.
They'... |
| McKesson beats Cardinal, AmerisourceBergen for big VA drug distribution contract | McKesson (NYSE:MCK) has won a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs drug distribution contract that could be worth nearly $32 billion over eight years, beating out its top rivals Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) and AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:ABC).
Wi... |