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Traditional drug store chains are feeling the pressure from new digital players such as Amazon and e-pharmacy startups like Capsule and NowRx...As competition from digital rivals continues to grow, CVS and Walgreens are embracing retail healthcare and expanding their healthcare offerings by adding value-based care and outpatient services…READ MORE

Here are three things the drug chains are doing to compete with digital rivals:

• In-store health services
• Prescription drug delivery
• Possible privatization

...the first meeting of a committee focused on assessing prescription drug pricing...The Committee to Conduct an Interim Study Concerning the Cost of Prescription Drugs was formed to look into the overall cost of prescription drugs in Nevada and how they compare to other states. Additionally, members will look at the impact of rebates, price reductions, and other remuneration from manufacturers on the costs of prescription drugs, and identify opportunities to lower prescription drug costs...The committee was formed as a result of SB276, which passed during the 2019 legislative session...READ MORE

Less than half of clinical trial results are reported promptly on the U.S. trial registry ClinicalTrials.gov despite federal requirements, according to a recent study published in The Lancet...U.S. regulations that took effect in January 2017 require clinical trials to report results on ClinicalTrials.gov within one year of completion. But just 41% of trials followed the rules, and one in three trials remains unreported. Trials with nonindustry sponsors (such as universities, hospitals, and governments) are far more likely to breach the rules than trials sponsored by industry—with trials sponsored by the U.S. government least likely to post results on time...READ MORE

Purdue has been identified as "Pharma Co. X," an unnamed opioid maker at the center of a federal kickback probe that netted a $145 million criminal and civil settlement...from Practice Fusion, a subsidiary of Allscripts Healthcare...According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont, Practice Fusion admitted that it had solicited and received kickbacks from a major opioid company––allegedly Purdue, which shelled out roughly $1 million in payments––in exchange for using its electronic health record software to influence physician prescribing of opioid pain medications..."During the height of the opioid crisis, (Practice Fusion) took a million-dollar kickback to allow an opioid company to inject itself in the sacred doctor-patient relationship so that it could peddle even more of its highly addictive and dangerous opioids,” Christina Nolan, U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont, said in a statement...READ MORE

Tedder (Ryan Tedder ) confirmed...he teamed up to buy the Walgreens building across from Park MGM, and that his investors on the deal included DJ duo the Chainsmokers...The $38 million sale by Walgreen Co., which bought the building in June from its former landlord for $30 million and flipped it, closed last month, property records show...Drugstores on tourist-choked Las Vegas Boulevard are big business, commanding outsize rents, strong retail sales and, as the recent purchase shows, high property values...Illinois-based Walgreen Co. had listed its 15,000-square-foot building on Las Vegas Boulevard between Tropicana and Harmon avenues for $40 million...READ MORE

Matthew Gavidia, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Although control measures are applied, falsified medicines are present in the supply chain in Niger, with solutions requiring cross-country collaboration, says the country’s Ministry of Health...The spotlight was put on the topic of falsified medicines earlier this month with the signing of the Lomé Initiative​, a political declaration under which the governments of seven African countries agreed to act to fight the issue, and improve access to quality medicines for African populations...the smuggling of fake drugs occurring at the country’s borders is the main weak point in the supply chain...harmonization of the legislation...can and needs to be achieved with the establishment of the African Medicines Agency, which would be the African equivalent of the European Medicines Agency, in charge of the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products...READ MORE

Gilead Sciences Inc said...it provided its experimental Ebola therapy for use in a small number of patients with the coronavirus…The company said it was also expediting laboratory testing of the antiviral drug, remdesivir, against samples of the new coronavirus…Johnson & Johnson...joined a growing list of drugmakers to begin work on developing a vaccine for the virus...Co-Diagnostics Inc said...initial verification of its screening test designed to identify the presence of the coronavirus was successful...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.

...the FDA wants to know whether consumers care one way or the other about influencers' paid endorsements….The agency proposed two studies this week to look at four different kinds of influencers in advertising—celebrities, physicians, patients and online influencers. In the first study, participants will view print ads featuring a physician, a celebrity and a patient with either a full disclosure that the person was paid to appear or no disclosure at all...The second study will tap 698 followers of an Instagram influencer with more than half a million and ask them to view posts for a fictitious endometriosis product labeled directly as paid ads; labeled indirectly, such as with the common hashtag #sp for sponsored; or not labeled at all...The intent of both is to look at the “role of the endorsement and payment status on participants' recall, benefit and risk perceptions, and behavioral intentions,” according to the filing...READ MORE