- US prison ‘fraudulently’ obtained sedative for lethal injection, claims Alvogen (in-pharmatechnologist.com)
Alvogen has won a court order preventing the Nevada Department of Corrections from using its sedative drug product, midazolam, in an execution...A temporary restraining order has blocked the Nevada Department of Corrections from using Alvogen’s midazolam in an execution due to take place yesterday (7/11). The drug was intended to be used as a sedative, prior to delivery of the lethal injections...Alvogen had claimed the Department fraudulently obtained the drug. “Alvogen does not accept direct orders from prison systems or departments of correction,”...“Alvogen also works with its distributors and wholesalers to restrict any sale, either directly or indirectly, of our midazolam product to any prison system or department of corrections,”...Alvogen “does not condone the use of any of its drug products, including midazolam, for use in state sponsored executions,”...
- This Week in Managed Care: July 13, 2018 (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
- Las Vegas fares well in prescription drug price comparison (reviewjournal.com)Here are the Most, and Least, Expensive Cities for Prescription Medications (goodrx.com)
Las Vegas ranks near the bottom in many health care categories, but this time it’s a good thing...The prescription drug-tracking website GoodRx rated Las Vegas one of the least-expensive metropolitan areas in the country for out-of-pocket prescription drugs in a new report...The reason for the city’s No. 9 ranking is unclear...Las Vegas’ prices were 9.4 percent below the national average. Columbus, Ohio, had the lowest prices, with drugs costing 21.7 percent below the national figure on average...In some cities, higher cost of living corresponded to higher prices, but not so in Las Vegas, where the Council for Community and Economic Research reports the cost of living to be 2.5 percent above the national average...Leiana Oswald, associate professor of pharmacy practice at Roseman University of Health Sciences in Henderson, said tools like GoodRx can be useful for consumers and pharmacists. She said customers should also get in the habit of asking for coupons at the pharmacy counter, checking for discounts through the drug manufacturer and comparing a drug’s cash price to the cost after insurance...“I think that the best thing that patients can do is to be that squeaky wheel, to ask those questions,” she said.
- Trump administration halts billions in insurance payments under Obamacare (reuters.com)
The Trump administration...halted billions of dollars in payments to health insurers under the Obamacare healthcare law, saying that a recent federal court ruling prevents the money from being disbursed...The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers programs under the Affordable Care Act, said the action affects $10.4 billion in risk adjustment payments...President Donald Trump’s administration has used its regulatory powers to undermine Obamacare after the Republican-controlled Congress last year failed to repeal and replace the law. About 20 million Americans have received health insurance coverage through the program...The payments are intended to help stabilize health insurance markets by compensating insurers that had sicker, more expensive enrollees in 2017. The government collects the money from health insurers with relatively healthy enrollees, who cost less to insure...
- NACDS RxImpact calls on Senate to support action on DIR fees (drugstorenews.com)
NACDS RxImpact pharmacy advocates are urging Senators to sign a letter to Health and Human Services Sec. Alex Azar that...describes the negative effects on Medicare patients and on pharmacies of the rapid expansion of the use of direct and indirect remuneration, or DIR, fees...urging Sec. Azar to not allow the current focus on drug prices to pass without taking meaningful action on this...issue...DIR fees were originally intended to capture and report rebate amounts paid by manufacturers at the end of the plan year during the reconciliation process in Part D. In recent years...the fees have become a catch-all category used increasingly by payers to include various pharmacy price concessions, such as fees related to performance-based programs or fees for participation in a preferred network. As a result, pharmacies find themselves in the untenable position of being paid by plan sponsors for prescription services, only to find out later that some of the payment must be returned...
- July 13 Pharmacy Week in Review: Coffee Linked to Decrease in Mortality Risk, Nutritional Pilot Program (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.
- What Does a Drug Cost? It Depends on Where You Live. (nytimes.com)Here are the Most, and Least, Expensive Cities for Prescription Medications (goodrx.com)
A new analysis finds the price of certain drugs varies widely depending on what city they are sold in...Thomas Goetz, the chief of research at GoodRx, said many factors are likely playing a role, like the prevalence in some areas of big-box stores like WalMart and Costco, which sell generic drugs at cheap prices...But that can’t entirely explain what’s going on. Much can still be chalked up to the “drug prices make no sense” theory, he said. Generic drug manufacturers often charge different prices for versions of the same drug, and pharmacies can then mark up the drug in a variety of ways...The study, which looked at 500 commonly used drugs in 30 American cities...differ significantly from coast to coast...
...average cash prices are at pharmacies in five major cities - Paroxetine - Generic for Paxil, used to treat depression
- Birmingham — $50.53
- Boston — $47.34
- Columbus — $20.87
- New York — $73.55
- San Francisco — $53.78
- FDA to Consumers: Stay Away from Maximum Powerful (ptcommunity.com)
The Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers not to purchase or use Maximum Powerful, a product promoted for sexual enhancement that contains sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra. This product was identified during an examination of international mail shipments...The announcement is part of the agency’s effort to inform the public of a growing trend of dietary supplements or conventional foods with hidden drugs and chemicals. The culprit products are typically promoted for sexual enhancement, weight loss, and bodybuilding and are often represented as being “all natural.”...the FDA noted that it is unable to test and identify all products marketed as dietary supplements that have potentially harmful hidden ingredients. As a result, the agency issued a blanket warning that consumers should exercise caution before purchasing any product touted as improving sexual enhancement, helping with weight loss, or building up muscle...
- Pfizer Caving to Trump Has Wall Street Asking Who’s Next (bloomberg.com)Sen. Wyden probes 'secret, sweetheart' deal between Pfizer, Trump (fiercepharma.com)
Pfizer’s decision to delay planned drug price hikes after President Trump attacked the company on Twitter may cause another shakeout throughout the health-care industry. Analysts at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and SunTrust expect other drugmakers will have to show more restraint on price increases, and say drug distributors may also find themselves under pressure. Height Capital Markets earlier cautioned about the risk to pharmacy-benefit managers, saying that Pfizer’s move ups the ante for the White House to propose policy changes on the use of rebates...“Drug stocks will not react favorably to this news, given the chilling effect this will likely have on others looking to take price increases. On the one hand, the price increases taken in July are only a small number of increases taken over the past year or several years, so the impact of the rollback to the healthcare system is insignificant in the big picture. However, the impact on the broader [dialogue] is much larger.”
- Drugmakers try evasion, tougher negotiations to fight new U.S. insurer tactic (reuters.com)
In the escalating battle over U.S. prescription drug prices, major pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to limit the economic damage from a new U.S. insurer tactic that coaxes patients away from expensive drugs...The latest move by insurers - which effectively forces drug companies to pay more to assist patients with their copays - is causing a decline in real U.S. drug prices this year, and is expected to become more widely adopted...Drugmakers are working on ways to counter copay accumulator programs, fearing that more employer health plans will adopt them...They include new payment options to evade detection by the pharmacy benefits managers so that a patient still benefits from the financial aid...Larger drugmakers may have the financial flexibility to monitor how these accumulator programs affect revenue over time, while those reliant on a small number of drugs may not be able to wait it out...Drugmakers are also taking a tougher stance when negotiating prices or new discounts for payers, according to insurance industry executives and pharmaceutical consultants...