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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.

CVS Caremark is saving money on drug costs by kicking specific products with high inflation off their formularies...The pharmacy benefit manager launched its program for “hyperinflation” drug removals in 2017 in which it will take drugs off its template formulary if they have far cheaper equivalents and their high prices aren’t backed by quality metrics...So far, they've identified five drugs to remove as the default option for docs...Through these efforts, Caremark has saved its PBM clients an average of $15 per 30-day supply on drugs—clients on this formulary model paid on average $88.30 for a 30-day drug supply, compared to $102.58 for other formulary designs...As the program is focused on products like that with high costs compared to alternatives, just five have been pulled from formularies so far—leading to a 99% drop in member use...READ MORE

The United States (HHS Secretary Alex Azar) said...it will provide thousands of doses of HIV medication to treat Venezuelans in Colombia as part of regional efforts to manage care for millions of migrants fleeing the crisis-hit nation...The United Sates will provide 12,000 doses, an HHS spokeswoman said, enough for a year’s medication for 1,000 migrants...“We believe that its vital to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to treat those who have it because with appropriate treatment individuals who have HIV/AIDS can live healthy, long, productive lives”...READ MORE

China said...it was relaxing drug laws to give greater leniency to people who import small amounts of medicines unapproved in China but sold legally overseas...Under the previous law, such drugs were classified as “fake drugs”. Those caught importing unapproved medicines were considered drug smugglers and faced heavy penalties...The change is part of wider revisions to drugs laws and authorities said it recognized how some Chinese, unable to afford expensive foreign-made, brand-name drugs, were turning to the grey market to buy cheaper generic versions that had not been approved by local regulators...READ MORE

China has expanded a pilot drug bulk-buying program to almost the entire country in an attempt to negotiate lower prices from drug manufacturers, heaping fresh pressure on multinational pharmaceutical companies and their domestic rivals...The program rolled out last year saw 11 Chinese cities...band together behind a tender process to bulk-buy 25 types of drugs. This caused the price of some medicines to plunge over 90%…The scheme will be expanded to 25 provinces and regions, who will form a league to look for suppliers for these drugs that will be stocked at public hospitals as well as some military and private medical institutions...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

The U.S. Food and Drugs Administration said...it was expanding its investigation into impurities in U.S. generic drugs beyond a class of medicines for high blood pressure known as angiotensin II receptor blockers...The agency did not specify which types of additional drugs it was looking at, but said it was testing samples of other medicines with similar manufacturing processes to those in which concerning impurities have been discovered...READ MORE

Federal health officials issued a national warning...against marijuana use by adolescents and pregnant women, as more states legalize the increasingly potent drug for medicinal and recreational use...Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Surgeon General Jerome Adams made the announcement, with Azar calling marijuana "a dangerous drug."...The warning comes as legal marijuana has grown into a $10-billion industry in the U.S. with nearly two-thirds of states legalizing it, mainly for medical uses. An increasing number of states and localities are also allowing personal, recreational use...Adams said science shows that marijuana is harmful to the developing brains of teenagers and to the human fetus. The drug has also gotten stronger, with a three-fold increase in the concentration of the active ingredient THC in cultivated plants over the last 20 years...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 U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said...that it will move ahead with a long-delayed expansion of its marijuana research program, in a sign that the Trump administration’s hostility to the drug may be waning as a growing number of states have legalized its use...The DEA said it would roll out new guidelines that would allow more growers to produce marijuana for scientific and medical research…READ MORE