- Big pharma deals show industry’s weak spots (biopharmadive.com)
Large-scale M&A among drugmakers isn't a new phenomena. Expiring patents, coupled with persistent struggles to develop new drugs, spur periodic waves of consolidation... Today's deals relate to upcoming patent expirations, but the uncertainty around regulatory efforts targeting pricing is much greater today than it was in 2009...On top of that, drugmakers face insurers and buying groups that are consolidated to a point that's resulted in higher rebate payments and reduced net prices for drugs in certain competitive classes...READ MORE
- Pharmacy Week in Review: Pharmacy Times Rides RAGBRAI; New Blood Test May Predict Breast Cancer Relaspe (pharmacytimes.com)
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.
- Saint Mary’s opening new North Valleys Urgent Care Clinic on July 15 (nnbusinessview.com)
Saint Mary’s Medical Group will open its new North Valleys Urgent Care Clinic...“Saint Mary’s believes in the importance of providing excellent care throughout the community,” Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell, Urgent Care Medical Director for Saint Mary’s Medical Group, said in a statement. “As the North Valleys continue to grow in population, providing care close to home is essential.”...READ MORE
- This Week in Managed Care: July 19, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- Opioid and price fixing legal liabilities mount for generic companies (biopharmadive.com)
The past business practices of biopharma companies like Endo and Teva continue to be under scrutiny. The scope of pending legal actions is difficult to quantify, given that both governments and individuals are involved, and the actions have now extended to price fixing as well as marketing...Using Iqvia prescription data, Purdue Pharma's $270 million settlement with Oklahoma and Teva's subsequent $85 million deal as benchmarks, Fadia calculated the total liability to be $4 billion for Endo, $2.5 billion for Teva, $1.2 billion for Amneal and $800 million for Mylan. That estimate relates to improper marketing of opioids...On the price-fixing charges, Fadia built an estimate around Iqvia prescriptions and potential excess sales that could have occurred on 114 different drugs, and then applied treble damages. In this scenario, Teva's liability could be as much as $3.1 billion, Mylan's $2.8 billion, Endo's $265 million and Amneal's $55 million…READ MORE
- CVS, Walgreens To Lead $23 Billion CBD Market By 2023
Retail chains led by CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance are expected to dominate the emerging multi-billion-dollar U.S. market of CBD, the compound derived from cannabis...CBD is gaining in popularity among consumers with the legal CBD market projected to surpass $23 billion in annual U.S. sales by 2023...This year, such sales are projected to be $5 billion - a sevenfold increase over 2018...“The CBD market has been growing rapidly, but we will see unprecedented growth in 2019,”...“The bulk of this growth is coming from large retailers like CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger entering the market and providing that availability to consumers.”...READ MORE
- Resort corridor hospital targeted by new Nevada law seeks to dispel misconceptions (lasvegassun.com)
A year after its opening and a few months after it was targeted in a political debate in the Nevada Legislature, Elite Medical Center...is looking toward 2021...That’s the year that Elite will have to accept Medicare and Medicaid, although CEO Patty Holden, who said it could be much sooner, hopes to work with lawmakers to create different classes of hospitals in Nevada...Less than a mile from Strip landmarks like the Bellagio and Paris Las Vegas, the hospital is working toward accepting Medicare and Medicaid, after state legislators earlier this year passed a law requiring essentially all hospitals in the state to accept the government programs...READ MORE
- This Week in Managed Care: July 26, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Jaime Rosenberg, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- Putting safety first: Retailers wrestle with supply chain safety amid drug import push (drugstorenews.com)
Product safety is a multifaceted issue for any retailer dealing with the pharmacy and prescriptions, and the systems that are in place to protect the quality and integrity of the goods offered constantly are evolving to strengthen the industry’s defenses...One of the key loopholes between consumers and the dangers of unsafe products, however, is the potential for the introduction of items from other countries that fail to meet the rigorous safety standards of the United States...The Food Safety Modernization Act, which took effect in 2011, sought to close that gap by imposing tighter regulation around the import of foods and ingredients from overseas...Market pressures in the pharmaceutical industry, however, have led officials at both the state and federal levels to explore the possibility of bringing drugs in from other countries at a lower cost, potentially circumventing the Food and Drug Administration’s close oversight of U.S.-made medications...the...National Association of Chain Drug Stores see several potential problems with the import of prescription medications from other countries, including:
Issues around the adequacy, consistency and integrity of the supply;
Issues around quality and safety;
Problems with maintaining dual inventories inside pharmacies;
Burdensome testing requirements;
Costs of establishing an infrastructure for imported drugs; and
Liabilities for injuries caused by imported drugs...READ MORE
- Training the next generation of doctors is critical to improving Nevadans’ health (lasvegassun.com)
While there is a worsening doctor shortage across America, the need for physicians is particularly acute in Southern Nevada. The UNLV School of Medicine is working to address this local shortage by accepting only students who are from Nevada or who have strong ties to the area, as we know that medical students who are attached to the city from which they graduate are more likely to stay and practice there...The UNLV School of Medicine is recruiting the brightest local students and embedding them in the community from the very start of their medical education...students are required to fan out in groups of five or six into economically challenged neighborhoods where...they educate residents about how they can get better access to medical care, public transportation and healthy food. And these students will maintain these ties to the community throughout their four years of medical school by volunteering at shelters and soup kitchens. In these venues, students not only get a firsthand look at a community’s needs, they experience what it is like to provide care to those who need it most...READ MORE