Category:

Cigna and its Express Scripts pharmacy benefit management unit...said they are rolling out a new program to cap out-of-pocket costs at $25 per 30-day insulin prescriptions for “non-government funded” drug plans...“Through the Patient Assurance Program, individuals who are eligible for the program will save approximately 40%, as well as gain peace of mind in knowing they will have access to improved affordability,” the companies announced. “Individuals with plan designs that involve coinsurance and/or a high deductible, will benefit the most from this new program."...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

Unlike several other markets, the U.S. consumer healthcare system generally does not allow for the “third leg” of health care: pharmacists prescribing prescription medicines...A U.K. pharmacy can be qualified as one of three general types in terms of the services it provides. The baseline or essential services... enhanced pharmacy services...The highest level...is called advanced...The more advanced level is the independent prescriber who is responsible for the assessment of patients with undiagnosed or diagnosed conditions, who makes decisions about the clinical management required, and who ultimately draws up a treatment plan...The United States is dipping its toe in the waters of pharmacy prescribing in such rural states as Idaho, and even California and Washington, but it is not a national structure. Filling gaps in care through pharmacist prescribing would strengthen community pharmacy’s value proposition within the healthcare system...READ MORE

China will add fentanyl-related substances to a supplementary list of controlled narcotic drugs from May 1, the government said...The statement was jointly issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the National Health commission and National Medical Products Administration...U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer said in March he would prefer to include China’s commitments to curb fentanyl in any trade agreement...READ MORE

The founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc put profits over patients’ safety by bribing doctors to prescribe an addictive fentanyl spray, fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic, a federal prosecutor said...at the end of a landmark trial...John Kapoor, who served as the drugmaker’s chairman, and four colleagues are the first executives of a painkiller manufacturer to face trial for conduct that authorities say was tied to a drug abuse epidemic that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year...He (Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathaniel Yeager) said Kapoor also sought to defraud insurers into paying for Subsys and carried out the scheme with the help of his co-defendants, former Insys executives and managers Michael Gurry, Richard Simon, Sunrise Lee and Joseph Rowan...All five have pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy...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.

Johnson & Johnson’s anticoagulant Xarelto has picked up an industry first. On Friday, it became the subject of the first-ever TV drug ad with a list price included...The company has tweaked two already-running ads to add Xarelto's $448 list price at the end of the spot, along with a range of typical out-of-pocket costs. J&J took the initiative to add list prices to the ads after a Trump administration proposal...J&J is not entirely alone...The Big Pharma members...all agreed last October to add pricing info links to all TV drug ads beginning in April, with some already doing so. Eli Lilly, for instance, began adding on-screen link referrals in January to its dedicated pricing website in TV ads for drugs including Trulicity and Emgality...READ MORE

U.S. companies cannot stop talking about marijuana, hoping in part they can catch investor interest as the booming economy around the drug lifts revenues throughout the supply chain...With the recreational use of cannabis now legal in 10 states and the District of Columbia and medical marijuana legal in 23 states, marijuana is on its way to becoming an $80 billion industry in the United States by 2030...That outsized growth is starting to bleed into adjacent industries ranging from energy to packaging to point-of-sale technology whose products are used in the production or sale of marijuana. As investors circle the cannabis space, supply-chain companies are showing a new willingness to associate themselves with an industry that remained largely illegal a decade ago...READ MORE

As Purdue Pharma grapples with thousands of lawsuits blaming the company for contributing to the opioid crisis, the drug maker has signaled it may file bankruptcy. If that happens, some newly created subsidiaries are likely to come under scrutiny...Purdue has launched two limited partnerships that are now marketing or developing drugs that were previously listed as part of the Purdue product portfolio. Several current and former Purdue executives run these companies, both of which the drug maker refers to as operating subsidiaries...The timing of all these activities — from creating the subsidiaries to transferring assets and employees — could be an issue for Purdue and the Sacklers, since these occurred not long before the drug maker indicated bankruptcy is a possibility...READ MORE

State legislators in Massachusetts are preparing to review a slew of bills aimed at state-level drug pricing, and the pharmaceutical industry is opening its checkbook to fight back...The state’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on April 11 will examine 21 bills targeting price transparency and affordability for patients. State Sen. Cindy Friedman...will take a hard look at measures to open up drugmakers' pricing secrets and lower sticker prices for patients...But pharmaceutical companies aren’t taking that challenge sitting down...the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America, told FiercePharma that the state’s push to cap prices would keep patients from getting the drugs they need...“We oppose government price-setting proposals in the states,” spokeswoman Priscilla VanderVeer said. “Government price controls limit access to medicines for patients and they stifle new innovation.”...READ MORE