- Benzer Pharmacy accelerates corporate growth trajectory with franchise offer (drugstorenews.com)
Benzer Pharmacy, listed in the top 30% of fastest growing companies by Inc. magazine in 2015, announced... that it is looking to expand the reach of its more than 50 locations in nine states by offering a franchise opportunity to independents...Benzer Pharmacy is now offering a franchise opportunity for those looking to start a new pharmacy and a conversion opportunity for pharmacies currently in operation...To thrive in this industry, independent pharmacy owners need to collaborate under one unique yet individual brand...Benzer Specialty Pharmacy offers a hub and spoke specialty model for independent pharmacies. The pharmacy is currently in process of getting accredited with the Accreditation Commission for health Care for specialty pharmacy...
- McKesson Falls After Saying It Will Cut 1,600 Jobs in U.S. (bloomberg.com)
McKesson Corp. shares fell after the drug distributor said Wednesday night that it will fire 1,600 people, or about 4 percent of its U.S. workforce, to cut costs after losing some key customers...shares dropped 3.5 percent to $150.53...lost 32 percent in the past 12 months...The company began a strategic review...and determined that reductions to our workforce would be necessary to align our cost structure with our business needs...McKesson’s business has been hurt by the expiration of a contract with Optum...and changes in contracts with Omnicare Inc...and Target Corp...The company has been making acquisitions to boost growth. McKesson purchased Rexall Health, Canada’s No. 2 drugstore chain, for $2.23 billion in early March, and bought two oncology companies in February for $1.2 billion.
- Rattled by drug price increases, hospitals seek ways to stay on guard (washingtonpost.com)
Doctors at the University Hospitals of Cleveland see an immediately recognizable symbol pop up alongside certain drugs when they sign in online these days to prescribe medications for patients: $$$$$...The dollar signs, affixed by hospital administrators, carry a not-so-subtle message: Think twice before using this drug. Pick an alternative if possible...The Zagat-like approach is just one of the strategies hospitals nationwide are using to try to counter drug costs. It was inspired...by... the University Hospitals system’s vice president of pharmacy services, who saw unexpected price hikes wreak havoc on his budget last year...The industry...notes that drug spending accounts for only about 10 percent of the country’s health-care costs and that published list prices do not reflect the steep discounts and rebates that companies may offer. Hospitals generally purchase drugs from wholesalers at costs below the list price, although wholesale prices are subject to increases...Hospital officials insist that even when sudden price increases occur, patients receive access to the medicines they need. But the unpredictable increases wedge their institutions financially...They can’t immediately pass on the cost if a drug gets more expensive because reimbursement rates for certain procedures already have been set by Medicare and private insurers. That means sharply higher prices can lead to losses..."I want drug companies to make money. I need them to make money, or I don’t have any ammo..."But there has to be a balance, a middle ground. If this keeps happening . . . it’s only a matter of time before we get to a point where we have to choose less desirable medications than what’s out there."
- Why Is No One Buying ‘Pink Viagra’? (forbes.com)
...as of January only 240 to 290 prescriptions were being written per week. Sales are running at a rate of $11 million/year...Contrast these results with what occurred with the real Viagra. Launched...in 1998..had first-year sales of $788 million...1999, sales exceeded $1 billion and Viagra sales eventually progressed to over $2 billion annually...Is the HSDD (hypoactive sexual desire disorder) population grossly overestimated?..Addyi...is a flawed drug. Unlike Viagra, its effects are not immediate. A patient needs to take it every day for weeks before the effects kick in. Second, the drug is saddled with side effects such as dizziness, low blood pressure, fainting and sleepiness; plus, it’s contraindicated with alcohol consumption. Add all this to the issue of modest efficacy, and it could be that women don’t believe Addyi’s benefit is worth the risks…Perhaps sales will pick up with time...Advertising might also increase awareness, but Valeant agreed with the FDA’s request to delay direct-to-consumer advertising for 18 months. This moratorium, however, could end just in time for Super Bowl 52. One could only imagine the ad campaign that Valeant will employ, given their recent toenail fungus ads.
- FDA moves to increase competition among single-source generics (drugstorenews.com)
Based on the latest update to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s Manual of Policies and Procedures, the Food and Drug Administration is looking to create more competition among generics — particularly for generics made by a single manufacturer... The updated MAPP outlines situations in which abbreviated new drug applications submitted by generics manufacturers will be eligible for an expedited review process, including submissions related to drug shortages, and legal requirements. Among them is the potential for expedited review for ANDAs related to what the agency calls "sole-source drugs" — drugs whose generic is manufactured by a single company...Submissions for drug products for which there is only approved product listed in the Prescription Drug Product List…of FDA’s Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations...and for which there are no blocking patents or exclusivities may receive expedited review...
- Why CMS’s Crazy Plan to Remake Medicare Part B Won’t Work (drugchannels.net) Community Oncology Alliance’s letter to Secretary Burwell, HHS (blog2.communityoncology.org)Health-Care Providers Aim to Fight Medicare Drug Plan (wsj.com)
In an amazing display of bureaucratic hubris, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed a mandatory, real-world experiment with provider reimbursement under the Medicare Part B program…CMS wants to reduce reimbursement for buy-and-bill drugs—but for only half of the country's providers. The other half will retain current reimbursement levels. After five years, CMS will see what happened…the proposal so overreaches that it will face enormous opposition and has little chance of being implemented…CMS’s proposed…Payment Model and the glaring methodological flaw that could end up raising drug costs…CMS wants to go after the buy-and-bill system’s theoretically…incentive for physicians to prescribe more-expensive drugs. For pricey specialty drugs, even a low single-digit markup over ASP can generate substantial dollar profits for a provider…These practices are for-profit private businesses. They will surely attempt to optimize against the CMS Phase I proposal by, for example, strategically directing patients to certain locations based on the cost of therapy and expected reimbursement…CMS even claims that its Phase I proposed model is “budget neutral.” This conclusion is based on the false assumption that there will be no behavior change in response to the study…CMS also ignores the possibility that patients will be shifted to higher-cost sites of care, including hospital outpatient departments…We are already seeing similarly brutal opposition to CMS’s latest brainstorm.
- Swiss and Indian regulators trying to determine how fake Harvoni reached Israel (in-pharmatechnologist.com)
The Swiss importer that supplied fake Harvoni to Israel has named the Indian manufacturer from which it bought the drug and is cooperating with an investigation say regulators...The knockoff versions of Gilead's $1,350-a-pill hepatitis C drug seized by Israeli authorities were supplied by a Swiss trading firm, which sourced them from a manufacturer in India according to...Swissmedic...Under the Swiss Federal Act on Medicinal Products and Medical Devices, Swissmedic can neither name the Swiss trader nor contact any other customers to which it may have supplied Harvoni until the investigation is completed...Similar investigations have taken up to two years...Gilead licensed rights to manufacture and distribute pills...Harvoni...to...Indian companies Cadila Healthcare, Cipla, Hetero Labs, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Sequent Scientific and Strides Arcolab...
- Sullivan University College of Pharmacy opens pharmacy camp for high school students (drugstorenews.com)
Sullivan University College of Pharmacy plans to hold its inaugural Pharmacy Camp for high school students in the classes of 2016, 2017 and 2018 who are interested in pursuing a career in pharmacy. The deadline to apply is April 18...Students will be able to stay on campus and experience the world of pharmacy and college...through classroom and lab activities...The Pharmacy Camp will enable students to experience the true reality, excitement and opportunities of attending college and pursuing a career in pharmacy...
- Valeant slashes financial outlook; investors flee ‘a broken company’ (statnews.com)
After years of enviable growth and brash moves, Valeant Pharmaceuticals appears to be succumbing to a broken business model...The beleaguered drug maker held a lengthy and much-anticipated briefing...for investors, and the news wasn’t pretty — the company cut its 2016 revenues and earnings forecast more than expected and disclosed weakness in areas of its business that caught investors by surprise. Particularly disturbing is the possibility that Valeant is in danger of defaulting on some of its debt...Valeant stock plunged 48 percent during the day on huge trading volume, continuing a slide that began last fall amid accusations by short sellers that the company had improperly booked revenue and used a specialty pharmacy to manipulate insurance reimbursements for key products. Even before the conference call ended, some Wall Street analysts recommended that investors flee.
- Plant-based vaccines poised to challenge $4bn seasonal flu shot market (in-pharmatechnologist.com)
An influenza vaccine produced in tobacco plants could make a big impact in the market if it reaches the market in the US in time for the 2018-19 flu season, says a market analyst...The vaccine - currently being tested in phase III trials by Mitsubishi Tanabe - has clear advantages over not only vaccines produced via the traditional route in eggs but also newer vaccines produced in cell culture...Mitsubishi Tanabe's candidate is one of a number of flu vaccines in development based on the expression of virus-like particles - self-assembled units that are closer in structure to the wild-type virus than subunit-based vaccines made in eggs. Clinical trials suggest they may be able to provide greater and longer-lasting protective immunity...By incorporating influenza genetic material into tobacco leaves new vaccines can be made in as little as four weeks - six times faster than egg-based methods - which means producers can match circulating flu strains more closely. They can also react quickly if a new strain of the virus starts to emerge...plant-based manufacturing offers reduced infrastructure costs and can slash production times in half...If the company's product, or one like it, is approved, GlobalData expects a novel vaccine that boasts a rapid, plant-based manufacturing process to have a significant impact on the seasonal influenza vaccine landscape...