Category:

A college student who argues he’s immune from COVID-19 because he was previously infected has lost his bid for an emergency court order that would have allowed him to register for classes while he presses his federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of UNR's mandatory vaccination policy...A U.S district judge from California...said in denying the temporary restraining order sought by 18-year-old Jacob Gold that he’s failed to establish a fundamental constitutional right to refuse vaccination...Gold claims that because he recovered from COVID-19, he has immunity superior to students who’ve been vaccinated and it is statistically impossible for a shot to benefit him...READMORE

...CVS Health recently announced that it will close about 900 of its retail pharmacies. This downsizing complements the company’s shift toward its healthcare delivery future...This long-overdue move highlights the retail industry’s fundamental economic headwinds. The pharmacy shakeout is accelerating, as smaller competitors exit and larger companies reduce store count...Retail pharmacies are experiencing a period of intense competition that continues to pressure prescription profits. After years of stability, the number of U.S. pharmacy locations across all formats is trending downward...READ MORE

Here are 10 key forces behind deteriorating retail pharmacy industry margins:

1) Slow retail prescription growth and intense competition for consumers.

2) Low generic drug prices.

3) Slower growth in brand-name drug list prices.

4) Limited exposure to the dispensing of specialty drugs.

5) Reduced margins from participating in payers’ narrow retail pharmacy networks.

6) Lower reimbursement and store traffic from 90-day maintenance prescriptions.

7) Rapid growth in direct and indirect (DIR) remuneration rebates.

8) Retail pharmacy’s cost structure.

9) Growing competition from technology-enabled online pharmacies.

10) Potential Policy Changes.

With a crucial drug in the state’s supply of lethal injection materials set to expire at the end of February, Nevada officials are pressing forward in their attempt to execute death row inmate Zane Floyd, even as lawyers for Floyd are imploring the court to explore alternative methods, such as a firing squad...The experts, including multiple anesthesiologists who have experience with the drugs involved in the protocol, testified that the untried drug cocktail could result in suffering or an agonizing death...READ MORE

As the world enters the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry faces a variety of ongoing challenges and shifts in delivery of care, according to a new 2022 predictions report...They identified five key predictions for the coming year:

1. Health disparities will negatively impact rural Americans twice as much as urban Americans

2. Labor shortages will double the medication error rate among providers

3. Healthcare will no longer be considered a trusted industry as misinformation and cyberattacks continue

4. Sixty percent of virtual care visits will be related to mental health

5. The number of hospital-at-home providers will triple...READ MORE

Nevada has become the first state to implement a health care premium surcharge on some 5,000 state employees not vaccinated against COVID-19 starting in July 2022...The Nevada Public Employees’ Benefits Program, which manages the health program for 43,000 members and 27,000 dependents across the state, approved a policy...to charge state employees $55 a month plus $175 a month for any unvaccinated dependents over the age of 18 unless they provide a legitimate health or religious exemption by the end of the open enrollment period, which will be assessed July 2022...The policy will help cover the costs of COVID-19 testing and hospitalizations associated with unvaccinated members, Laura Rich, executive officer of the Nevada Public Employees’ Benefits Program (PEBP), said...READ MORE

CVS Health will invest $7.7 million with Raymond James Tax Credit Funds to build a 61 unit multifamily apartment home development called Uptown Sky in Tampa, Fla...As part of its commitment to address racial inequity and social determinants of health in underserved communities, CVS Health will invest $7.7 million with Raymond James Tax Credit Funds to build a 61 unit multifamily apartment home development...READ MORE

Today, I examine how smaller pharmacies will participate as preferred cost sharing pharmacies via the pharmacy services administrative organizations that represent them in negotiations with plans...the largest PSAOs are increasingly rejecting preferred networks. Below we provide details about the PSAOs owned by the three major wholesalers—AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson—along with information about AlignRx, the largest independent PSAO. There are some notable differences in strategy, as you will see from our handy scorecard below...Smaller pharmacies’ rejection of Part D preferred networks shows that they are figuring out how to survive a highly challenging retail environment. Perhaps Part D is just a flesh wound?...READ MORE

A former Immunomedics executive was charged with tipping his partner and several relatives of confidential information that the biotech's then-experimental breast cancer drug had succeeded in a clinical trial, according to a suit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in New Jersey district court...Usama Malik, Immunomedics' chief financial officer from 2017 until late 2020, learned the drug, now sold as Trodelvy, benefited patients in the late-stage study. Within hours of being told of the trial's success, the SEC charges said, Malik relayed the news to his former girlfriend Lauren Wood and three relatives, who subsequently bought shares in Immunomedics before the results were disclosed publicly...READMORE

UCB became the latest pharmaceutical manufacturer to restrict selling products discounted under the 340B program to contract pharmacies despite ongoing efforts by the federal government to fine other companies that have made similar moves...The decision comes as the federal government and six other drugmakers are battling in court over the ability to cut off access to contract pharmacies, which are third parties that dispense 340B drugs on the covered entity’s behalf...340B advocates blasted the move by UCB, which is the ninth drugmaker to cut off access...READ MORE

A pharmacy in Virginia incorrectly administered Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 shots to 112 children last week, according to the state Department of Health...“The pharmacy attempted to provide a proper dose,” Loudoun County Health Department director Dr. David Goodfriend...said it appears the pharmacy did administer about a third of the adult dose, which should be the correct amount. However, “a lower dose is possible if not all of the 0.1 ml was administered into muscle,” he said...Goodfriend alerted parents in a letter sent out...that Ted Pharmacy may have administered a lower dose than recommended. State and federal officials told the pharmacy to stop distributing shots altogether on Friday before seizing all of its Covid doses, a Virginia health department spokesperson said in a statement...READ MORE