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Time for Drug Channels’annual look at independent pharmacy owners’ business economics, drawn from the recently released 2018 National Community Pharmacists Association Digest...Our analysis reveals that independent pharmacy owners have faced another year of deteriorating finances ...What's more, we estimate that in 2017, the average pharmacy owner’s salary fell to a level comparable to that of an employed pharmacist. Owning a pharmacy, with all of its hassles and additional obligations, now brings the same reward as being an employee. I wonder how many owners will conclude that it’s barely worth the risk and effort...The pharmacy consolidation endgame is getting closer...

OBSERVATIONS ON THE 2017 DATA

5) By the NCPA's count, the total number of independent pharmacies is slowly declining.

A top U.S. lawmaker launched an investigation into pharmaceutical industry pricing practices on Monday, less than a week after he and fellow Democrats introduced legislation aimed at lowering medicine prices. Representative Elijah Cummings, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, sent letters to 12 drugmakers seeking information on price increases, investment in research and development, and corporate strategies to preserve market share and pricing power...Cummings’ letters focused on drugs that are the costliest to Medicare Part D, a program that helps beneficiaries of the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled pay for self-administered medicines like those purchased at drugstores, as well as drugs that have had the largest price increases over a five-year period.

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.

It may not seem as if pharma companies are biting their nails over drug prices. After all, a cohort of drugmakers made headlines last week with an annual round of January hikes. But the issue is on the top of industry worries for 2019, a new report finds...Slightly more than half of respondents to a GlobalData survey tagged pricing and reimbursement as their biggest worry this year...As that pricing pressure rolls on, GlobalData analysts also expect "aggressive negotiation tactics to drive down drug prices."...

Memorial Sloan Kettering will no longer allow its top executives to simultaneously sit on corporate boards of for-profit, health-related companies, including drugmakers...The decision comes as the New York-based cancer center has found itself the center of public scrutiny following a series of investigative reports published by The New York Times and ProPublica that raised ethical questions on the nonprofit's relationships with industry. The organization's chief executive, Craig Thompson, resigned in October from his seat on the board of Merck & Co.

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

Big Pharma got a reprieve in Philadelphia last month, but only temporarily...city council paused its proposal to regulate pharmaceutical sales reps when the bill’s co-sponsors pulled it at the final meeting of the year, but they committed to taking it up again in 2019...Councilman Bill Greenlee and Councilwoman Cindy Bass announced they were pulling the proposal before a vote could be taken...and blamed new opposition on the fact that Big Pharma "has unleashed its money and reach to cause hysteria and spread false information.”...Greenlee accused the industry of “bullying” local businesses “when pharmaceutical companies threatened to pull any future medical conventions from the city because of the ‘perception’ of the legislation.”...The proposed “Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing Practices” gifts and conduct ordinance would regulate pharma manufacturer reps in the city with measures such as having to register with the city, which includes a fee, and prohibiting any gifts to healthcare providers and office staff...follows efforts from other cities such as Chicago, which passed an ordinance to require sales rep licensing that went into effect in July 2017. Nevada also requires pharma manufacturers to submit a list of sales reps working in the state, report gifts or freebies over $10 and provide a list of drug samples distributed...

CVS announced...that Walmart pharmacies are leaving its network because of a dispute over pricing...Both Walmart and CVS are saying that the other company is trying to make prescriptions more expensive for consumers...CVS said it has asked Walmart to stay in its networks through April 30...Walmart is one of the largest pharmacy chains in the United States with about 4,600 locations, but CVS said that the matter will not considerably impact its financial results. Less than 5 percent of affected CVS Caremark members use only Walmart to fill their prescriptions...

Concern over China's territorial, military, and economic aggressiveness has been building over the past decade as the country is increasingly perceived as a threat to the United States, U.S. Asian allies, and the West. In China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America's Dependence on China for Medicine (Prometheus Books, 2018), authors Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh explore yet another peril: China as the largest global supplier of ingredients for many prescription drugs, over-the-counter products, and vitamins...China Rx is an important wake-up call for American citizens and government officials about the danger of our dependency on a hostile superpower and the need to safeguard our drug supply, American jobs, and industries and national security.

An increasing number of pharma companies are opting to outsource the development and manufacturing of small and large molecules...This growing trend has created a contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) market of approximately $5bn over the last 15 years....The decision to either ‘make or buy’ – to manufacture in-house or to outsource responsibility to a contractor – is not an easy one...Nor is the selection process, if the pharma company elects to outsource its manufacturing to a new partner...how should pharma companies select an outsourcing partner? Does geography, and the CMO’s proximity to its client, play a major role in this process?

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