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Who decides how much you pay for prescription medicines? It's a question with a very complicated answer. Now, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is hoping to simplify the process and save you money by opening his own pharmacy...Cuban helped launch Cost Plus Drugs in January. It's an online pharmacy with no storefronts that offers more than 1,000 generic drugs. The business model is built on transparency. Each drug profile breaks down how Cost Plus determines its price: cost plus a 15% markup, $3 pharmacy fee, and $5 for shipping..."We get people coming to us and saying 'your price is $10, my co-pay is $20,'" said Cuban. "'So I'm ignoring my insurance and coming straight to you.'"...Cost Plus does it by negotiating directly with drug manufacturers and cutting out the middleman...READ MORE

When Food and Drug Administration enacted the Drug Supply Chain Security Act in 2013, it set a 10-year timeline for full implementation. Well, believe it or not, we are just a little more than a year away from that November 2023 deadline...A significant portion of this last milestone requires the entire supply chain to become interoperable using secure and electronic means. One requirement that is included in Title II of the Act calls for product tracing at the package level, which had not been explored widely by the industry until recently. Our DSCSA State Regulator Pilot project tested a system for sharing this information between regulators and trading partners, including distributors, manufacturers, and others...READ MORE

There were reports earlier this month that concierge primary care company One Medical was looking at potential suitors for a takeover deal...It seems Amazon made the right offer...The deal expands Amazon's reach into primary care as it also operates Amazon Care, which offers both virtual care services as well as in-home care to employees and other companies...Acquiring One Medical is part of Amazon's goal to "reinvent" healthcare..."Booking an appointment, waiting weeks or even months to be seen, taking time off work, driving to a clinic, finding a parking spot, waiting in the waiting room then the exam room for what is too often a rushed few minutes with a doctor, then making another trip to a pharmacy – we see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,”...READ MORE

A Stanford University team has created the amphibious all-terrain vehicle of the drug delivery world. The researchers designed the millimeter-scale robot to roll, flip and spin past obstacles and through liquids to navigate complex biomedical environments...Multiple papers have described the creation of wirelessly operated millimeter-scale origami robots that can move through narrow spaces and change shape to complete specific tasks. Potential applications for the robots include targeted drug delivery, in which context the vehicles would carry a payload for release at a specific site...Operated magnetically, the millirobot is designed to adapt itself to the environment, autonomously switching between rolling and flipping to get over some obstacles. Applying a magnetic field causes the millirobot to jump over bigger barriers...READ MORE

Local pharmacies are welcoming the news they will soon be able to refill some prescriptions for customers who don’t have a family doctor...But they agree with doctors who have said the change is not a long-term solution to the shortage of physicians...Overall, however, it is really needed right now, said Moez Karim, pharmacy manager, at The Pharmacy in Langley...“A lot of patients, especially in this area, they’re either seniors or they have real difficulty getting access to doctors and their family doctors. Often times, they are seeing them on the phone. I think they’re falling through the cracks. This is one way of reducing their stress.”...Minister of Health Adrian Dix announced last week that, starting Oct. 14, pharmacists across B.C. will be able to renew prescriptions for a wider range of medications so that people in B.C. can access medication “in a timely fashion and ensure continuity of their treatment.”...READ MORE

A local pharmacy will have another chance to earn approval to sell cannabis to adults on its premises, despite the pharmacy’s proximity to a school, when the Las Cruces City Council takes on the issue at an upcoming meeting...At its Sept. 6 meeting, the council will hear an appeal from Mesilla Valley Pharmacy regarding the city Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision in April to deny the pharmacy's request to sell cannabis products. The council could vote on Tuesday to reverse that decision...READ MORE

Apparently, a $107 million deal value isn't large enough to be considered anticompetitive when viewed in the context of delaying generics to a blockbuster brand...A Delaware federal judge reached that conclusion when he threw out an antitrust claim targeting a pay-for-delay deal between AstraZeneca and generic maker Accord Healthcare over the British pharma’s popular antipsychotic Seroquel XR...But that was only a half-win for AstraZeneca in a class action suit. The judge has allowed another similar claim brought by drug wholesalers, retailers and payers against a separate deal that AZ originally signed with Handa Pharma and later passed on to Endo’s Par Pharmaceutical...Both claims allege that the “reverse payment” agreements AZ inked with those generic makers to settle Seroquel XR patent disputes delayed and suppressed competition, causing higher prices...READ MORE

Nevada’s governor...said the state is launching a prescription discount card, a method of softening the rising costs of medications that is also used in Washington and Oregon...The digital card, called ArrayRX, saves an average of 80% on generic prescriptions and up to 20% on brand name drugs and is free for Nevadans, Governor Steve Sisolak said. For those without health insurance, the card is set to lower costs significantly...Those with health insurance will be able to compare their costs with ArrayRX, and can opt for whichever option is cheaper...READ MORE

Getting diagnosed with cancer or another life-altering illness can overwhelm patients, who suddenly face a complex condition while worrying about their future, family and finances. The ability to quickly access prescribed specialty medicines shouldn’t add to those worries...There’s a far more efficient way to handle this, both for patients and doctors: provide the prescribed medications at the cancer clinic or academic medical center where the patient regularly goes for testing and medical appointments. Embedding a specialty pharmacy within the practice—called medically integrated dispensing dramatically improves the healthcare experience by removing the PBM-controlled specialty pharmacy from the “triangle of care”—the doctor, the patient, and the pharmacist...READ MORE

California will start making its own affordable insulin as part of an effort to combat high drug prices for a lifesaving medication that's been made inaccessible for some Americans living with diabetes, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced...Newsom said in a video posted to Twitter that $100 million from the state budget he recently signed for 2022-2023 would be allocated for California to "contract and make [its] own insulin at a cheaper price, close to at cost, and to make it available to all." Half of the $100 million would go toward the development of a "low-cost" insulin, Newsom said. The other $50 million would go toward a facility in the state to manufacture insulin that would "provide new, high-paying jobs and a stronger supply chain for the drug."...READ MORE