- Flushed Pharmaceuticals Are Likely Drugging Stream Dwellers Like The Platypus (blogs.discovermagazine.com)A diverse suite of pharmaceuticals contaminates stream and riparian food webs (nature.com)
The pharmaceuticals that our bodies don’t use are cleared from our systems and flushed down into sewage systems, processed in water treatment plants, and finally dumped into streams and other waterways...an alarming number of pharmaceutical compounds aren’t filtered out during the treatment process. Research...shows that this might have an even bigger effect on stream ecosystems than anyone expected...A range of drugs used by humans were detected in Australian stream invertebrates and the spiders that eat them. The researchers have reason to worry that this will have compounding effects up the food chain – to stream predators like trout, or Australian favorite the platypus.
- CVS is testing a membership program as Amazon pushes into prescription drugs (cnbc.com)
CVS is piloting a program in Boston that includes free delivery on most prescriptions and online purchases, access to a pharmacist helpline, a 20 percent discount on all CVS-branded products and a monthly $10 coupon. Called CarePass, a membership costs $48 annually or $5 monthly, less than half the price of a Prime membership...CarePass is a bold attempt to fight Amazon — and may even put the retailer ahead. CarePass bundles prescription drug delivery with everyday items — something Amazon doesn't yet do.
- Trump administration unveils plan to lower Medicare Part B prices by basing costs on other countries’ pricing (fiercehealthcare.com)Trump administration faces uphill battle in convincing provider skeptics to back new drug pricing plan (fiercehealthcare.com)
President...Trump...announced a new payment model that would more closely align the cost of Medicare Part B drugs with the prices paid for the same drugs in other countries...As they unveiled the "International Pricing Index" model, federal health officials projected the proposal could save Medicare more than $17 billion over the course of a five-year pilot. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services currently pays the average sales price plus 6% for Part B drugs, and in the new proposal would instead pay a target price based on international prices and look to alternatives for the add-on fee...Medicare currently pays about 180% more than other countries for drugs in Part B, which includes pharmaceuticals that are administered in a clinical setting, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said. Through the IPI model, HHS is looking to bring that figure down to 126%.
- How Mergers Will Affect Pharmacists (drugtopics.com)
The Cigna-Express Scripts merger has gotten a go-ahead from the Department of Justice, but DOJ has not ruled on the CVS-Aetna merger at press time...Both deals have shareholder backing... I think it’s part of an overall trend...Effects on Pharmacists...Frederick S. Mayer...CEO of Pharmacists Planning Services Inc...fears that they could result in loss of pharmacy jobs due to closures of independent pharmacies that can no longer compete. Chain pharmacists could also have less job security as locations may close. Mayer also says consolidation could lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less choice for consumers...Pharmacists...trained eight years for their PharmD, and now they are counting, pouring, and typing due to mergers,” says Mayer, who adds that pharmacists in larger settings don’t have adequate time for patient counseling...Over the past 10 years, mergers have resulted in poorer choices of medication for consumers and patients...Chains that are in one of these vertically integrated systems have guaranteed volume without competition on price...Perry Cohen, CEO of The Pharmacy Group...Companies responding to the need for new care models for healthcare services. The marketplace needs new care models and wants to embrace these companies that get ahead of the curve...More Mergers Coming... more vertical mergers and acquisitions...The horizontal is being driven a lot by the reimbursement pressure...The vertical is much more strategic around the control of the overall person’s healthcare...
- CMS finalizes site neutral payment rule (healthcarefinancenews.com)
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has finalized site neutral payments in the hospital outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgical center payment system rule...CMS is using site neutral payments to level the playing field between what physician offices and hospital outpatient departments are paid for certain clinical visits...In addition...CMS is expanding its 340B policy by extending the payment change to additional off-campus provider-based hospital outpatient departments that are paid under the physician fee schedule...Today's rule advances competition...for providers so they can compete for patients on the basis of quality and care...The final policies remove unnecessary and inefficient payment differences so patients can have more affordable choices and options.
- Political donations from opioid-related pharma companies slow down in 2018 (thenevadaindependent.com)
Campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies named in lawsuits filed by the state and several local governments have largely dried up this year...The pharmaceutical industry — long one of the biggest political players in the country, donating tens of millions of dollars to candidates and politicians at all levels of government — has contributed less to state-level candidates this election cycle despite contributing nearly $1 million to various candidates and PACs over the past decade...Seven of the 14 pharmaceutical companies implicated in a Clark County opioid lawsuit that had donated more than $934,000 to state level candidates or party committees have been easing off, and only two named companies — Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma — continued to donate any money after those lawsuits were filed...
- FDA’s Gottlieb ‘extremely worried’ on CAR-T reimbursement (biopharmadive.com)
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb stressed the need for reform on the reimbursement side of medicine, calling it an "ossified paradigm" that could weigh on cutting-edge therapies like CAR-T cancer therapy..."There are places where I am extremely worried that if we don't adapt the approach to reimbursement soon, we may foreclose therapeutic opportunities,"...The FDA head referenced how radiopharmaceuticals were treated in reimbursement, "underpaying hospitals and forcing them to lose money." Gottlieb warned the same thing is happening now with CAR-T.
- Pharmacies still blocking U.S. teens looking for emergency contraception (reuters.com)Availability and Accessibility of Emergency Contraception to Adolescent Callers in Pharmacies in Four Southwestern States (jahonline.org)
Teens seeking to buy emergency contraception at pharmacies continue to face significant roadblocks…Researchers checking on the accessibility of the “morning after pill” at pharmacies in four Southwestern states found that just 28 percent made it simple and straightforward for teens to purchase the emergency contraception, according to the results published in the Journal of Adolescent Health…Despite the FDA ruling . . . that emergency contraceptives should be sold over-the-counter without age or identification restrictions, this is not being fully implemented into the pharmacy setting as anticipated…
- In Unprecedented Move, Amgen Cuts Price Of Cholesterol Drug Repatha By 60% (forbes.com)
Amgen is cutting the list price of its cholesterol drug Repatha by 60% to $5,850 in an unprecedented move to make the drug available to senior citizens...“We’ve got to make sure those who need [Repatha] can get it,” says Robert Bradway, Amgen’s chairman and chief executive. “The losers are the patients who have gone to the pharmacy counter and have not been able to get the medicine they need, and that’s what we need to address as a company, as an industry, and as a society.”...Cardiologists have complained that it has been tremendously difficult to get insurance plans to pay for the drugs, which lower...low-density lipoprotein...This decision will open up access to the most effective LDL-lowering therapy to a much larger group of patients and that has major positive public health implications.”
- Jeff Sessions announces more prosecutors for crackdown on opioid providers (fiercehealthcare.com)
A day after President Trump signed a massive piece of legislation responding to the opioid crisis into law, the Department of Justice announced it's pouring even more resources into its crackdown on prescribers...Attorney General Jeff Sessions said his agency was creating a new Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force to focus on communities "hit especially hard by addiction and opioid fraud."...a dozen prosecutors and data analysts will operate out of hubs in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee, monitoring the Appalachian region for fraudulent opioid prescriptions by physicians...