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Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Indivior Plc lost nearly three-quarters of its stock market value...and former parent Reckitt Benckiser also fell after the U.S. Justice Department accused the British drugmaker of illegally boosting prescriptions for its blockbuster opioid addiction treatment Suboxone...An indictment...alleged Indivior made billions of dollars by deceiving doctors and healthcare benefit programs into believing the film version of Suboxone was safer and less susceptible to abuse than similar drugs...The indictment charged Indivior and its subsidiary Indivior Inc with conspiracy, health care fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud. The U.S. government said it would seek to have it forfeit at least $3 billion...READ MORE

Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Three drugmakers will pay $122.6 million to resolve claims they used charities that help cover Medicare patients’ out-of-pocket drug costs as a way to pay kickbacks aimed at encouraging use of their medications, including some expensive ones...The U.S. Justice Department...said Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc, Lundbeck A/S and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc had become the latest companies to settle claims stemming from an industry-wide probe of drugmakers’ financial support of patient assistance charities...The government has alleged in earlier settlements that drugmakers used such charities as a means to improperly pay the copay obligations of Medicare patients using their drugs in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute...READ MORE

A Democratic-controlled Senate rejected...an amendment backed by their Republican colleagues that would have removed a carveout in state trade secret law long opposed by the national drug lobby...Senate Republican Leader James Settelmeyer framed the amendment as an attempt to codify an agreement reached between drug companies and the state following a lawsuit over Nevada’s first-in-the-nation diabetes drug pricing transparency law...As part of that agreement, the state mapped out a process in regulation to protect information that drug companies believe to be trade secret protected from public disclosure...“The framework for protection of trade secrets in the regulations adopted for diabetes transparency reporting applies to disclosures under statute but were written by referencing the specific bill that created those sections,”...Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said in a statement opposing the asthma bill. “The confidentiality language in the regulations for the diabetes transparency bill should be adopted in SB 262 to clarify that the requirements and considerations apply to disclosures required by those sections of statute generally and not just pursuant to any specific bill.”...Sen. Yvanna Cancela, who sponsored both the diabetes and asthma drug pricing bills, said on the floor that she believed the proposed amendment would weaken the state’s drug pricing transparency statute and pointed to the existing regulatory framework in place...READ MORE

Walgreens and VillageMD...announced a collaboration focused on providing...primary care...VillageMD will operate...clinics next to five Walgreens stores in the Houston area...branded ‘Village Medical at Walgreens,’ will provide comprehensive primary care services, integrated tightly with pharmacists, nurses and social workers to meet the full suite of patient needs...READ MORE

A physician ally of Purdue Pharma LP...has agreed to testify against the OxyContin maker and other drug companies, newly disclosed court records show...Dr. Russell Portenoy, a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was an early advocate for the use of opioids for chronic pain...He also was named as a defendant in some of the lawsuits filed by cities, counties and states seeking to hold opioid makers - including Endo and Mallinckrodt Plc...But Portenoy...struck a deal with the plaintiffs to serve as a cooperating witness, the records show. In exchange for his dismissal from the suits, Portenoy provided the plaintiffs with documentation of opioid makers’ payments to him over the years, as well as a 36-page declaration that lays out what he would say on the witness stand...READ MORE

The people charged across 11 federal districts, include 31 doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurse practitioners, and seven other licensed medical professionals...The cases involve more than 350,000 prescriptions for controlled substances across Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and West Virginia...The Justice Department said six individuals, including two doctors and three registered pharmacists were charged with several counts, including unlawful distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to obtain controlled substances by fraud...One arrest...involved a doctor in Kentucky who allegedly prescribed opioids to friends on Facebook, who would then come to his home to pick up prescriptions...Another case involved a doctor in Tennessee who branded himself the “Rock Doc.” He allegedly prescribed combinations of dangerous combinations of opioids and benzodiazepines, a class of psychoactive drugs, sometimes in exchange for sexual favors...READ MORE

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

SB262: Asthma drug pricing transparency

...Democratic Sen. Yvanna Cancela...has introduced a bill that would apply the same standards toward drugs that treat asthma...SB262 largely copies provisions of Cancela’s 2017 legislation on diabetes drug transparency, which requires the drug manufacturer to submit information to the state related to the cost of the pricing of the drug, and explain to the state whether the drug has undergone a substantial price increase in the past two years...SB262

SB378: Drug pricing board

Proposed by Democratic Sen. Yvanna Cancela, this measure would establish a statewide Prescription Drug Affordability Board, charged with identifying certain prescription drugs with pricing that creates challenges for insurers and patients and that would recommend an upper price and payment limit on the drug...The bill lays out the structure, make-up and abilities of the board, funded by taxes on prescription drug manufacturers based on their market share and the required costs of the board. It also lays out a process for setting upper recommendations on prescription drug prices, including requiring the suggested limits become mandatory after 2024...SB378

AB303: Regulation of kratom products

Sponsored by Assembly Republican Leader Jim Wheeler, this bill would require the state pharmacy board to regulate and oversee the sale of kratom, a Southeast Asian tropical tree with leaves that contain psychotropic effects...The bill would also prohibit the sale of kratom products to children under the age of 18, or to sell any kratom products that have been altered to become “injurious” to a consumer. It sets a $1,000 fine and separate civil penalty up to $1,000 for violations...AB303

AB239: Opioid clarification bill

...this bill would make changes to the opioid prescribing law passed in the 2017 legislative session that prompted complaints by physicians in the interim. The legislation would, among other things:
- Codify certain definitions from pharmacy board regulations, including course of treatment and acute pain
- Allow providers to still prescribe a controlled substance after reviewing a patient utilization report if they determine the prescription is medically necessary
- Allow providers to prescribe a longer initial prescription for a controlled substance for the treatment of acute pain than normally allowed by law if medically necessary
- Remove a requirement that a provider make a good faith effort to attempt to review a patient’s medical records before issuing an initial prescription of a controlled substance for the treatment of pain unless the initial prescription is for more than 30 days or the medical records are relevant to the prescription
- Repeal requirements that providers consider certain factors — including whether there is reason to believe the patient is not using drugs as prescribed, the number of attempts by a patient to obtain an early refill of a prescription and the number of times a patient claims a prescription has been lost or stolen — before prescribing a controlled substance...AB239