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Amazon is running into challenges in its drug distribution push...Amazon's potential leap into pharmaceuticals has weighed on drug distributors and pharmacies for months, but those companies are getting relief from news that the online retail giant has put at least one of its plans on ice...a unit that sells bulk products to companies—hasn't been able to convince hospitals to get on board with its plan. One reason: The company doesn't have a proper cold-chain logistics network, which is crucial to distributing many drugs...Amazon has now backed away from the effort, the publication reported...The company is pressing ahead with other healthcare projects, though it's unknown whether they involve pharmaceutical sales...

An online pharmacy that bills itself as Canada's largest was fined $34 million...for importing counterfeit cancer drugs and other unapproved pharmaceuticals into the United States...U.S. prosecutors say Canada Drugs' business model is based entirely on illegally importing unapproved and misbranded drugs not just from Canada, but from all over the world. The company has made at least $78 million through illegal imports, including two that were counterfeit versions of the cancer drugs Avastin and Altuzan that had no active ingredient, prosecutors said...judge...approved federal prosecutors' recommended sentences that include $29 million forfeited, $5 million in fines and five years' probation for Canada Drugs...also sentenced Thorkelson (founder, Kris Thorkelson) to six months' house arrest, five years' probation and a $250,000 fine...

CVS Health is introducing a system to provide customers with greater insight into drug costs and less expensive alternatives. The plan will first be available to those using CVS' pharmacy benefit manager Caremark. Consumers are often frustrated by the difficulty of comparing the cost of treatments...CVS Health wants to make it easier for its pharmacists to find less costly drugs for patients...The drugstore chain is introducing a system that will check for less expensive alternatives, higher quantities at lower costs and discounts. CVS hopes it can help lower costs for its customers and in doing so, make sure they pick up their prescriptions...We want to be known as the retail pharmacy that does the most to help save patients money...The power of this tool, the RX Savings Finder, is we have access to the information that we need to be able to provide options to our customers to save them money...

A crisis mental health clinic in Reno abruptly shut its doors...less than a month after giving up its special community behavioral health clinic status...The nonprofit WestCare said in a statement that it has closed its Reno operations — with the exception of WestCare Homefront, which serves veterans — because of financial shortfalls with government funding partners. Just three weeks earlier, the nonprofit voluntarily gave up its participation in the certified community behavioral health clinic demonstration program but said that it would continue to operate its programs in Reno...WestCare said that its ability to provide the multitude of services required of a certified community behavioral health center was “significantly diminished” after the departure of a clinical supervisor and three clinical social worker interns...WestCare...will continue to operate the Community Triage Center and our other programs in Reno...

The Drug Enforcement Agency has reached an agreement with 50 attorneys general to share prescription drug data with one another to support ongoing investigations...from its Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, which collects 80 million prescription drug transactions from manufacturers and distributors each year...Attorney General Jeff Sessions...said the data-sharing pact will “make both the DEA and our state partners more effective at finding evidence of crime.”...Exactly how that data sharing agreement would operate remains fuzzy...

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has laid out a bevy of initiatives that officials said would reduce drug prices for patients covered by the Medicare Part D prescription drug program—but they have made no decisions yet...That issue is whether the discounts that pharmacy benefit managers negotiate for drugs—the “rebates” that lawmakers have been raising questions about in recent months—as well as other fees, should go toward lowering the price that a patient pays at the pharmacy...“While we are not finalizing any policy in this area at this time, we appreciate the detailed submissions from stakeholders, and we are evaluating these comments as we consider future proposals,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma...It’s unclear whether lowering the amount of money that the patient pays at the pharmacy would actually lower the total amount of health care spending. According to an analysis by CMS that was part of the proposed rule in November, patients would indeed pay less, but the government would pay more...

Two medical associations have announced a collaborative value-based payment model for opioid addiction treatment...The payment model, announced by the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the American Medical Association, is aimed at improving care coordination and lowering healthcare spending by reducing costly emergency department visits and hospitalizations...The model increases utilization of and access to medications for opioid treatment, combining them with the appropriate level of medical, psychological and social support services which can be delivered at multiple providers…The model is for outpatient care only...a basic version of the model is already in operation with Optum…the groups have discussed the model with officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as its innovation center, which is responsible for new demonstration programs.

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Aurora Cannabis and CanniMed Therapeutics announced...a letter of intent to become a preferred supplier of medical cannabis to Pharmasave, member-governed cooperative of more than 650 independently owned community pharmacies...Pharmasave joins two other national pharmacy chains...These supply agreements allow...strong penetration into...a sizable portion of the medical cannabis market...pharmacists need to be prepared to fulfill their role as medication experts in the area of medical cannabis...This includes how medical cannabis may affect other medications the patient may take, any health conditions they might have and insights on how to identify and address mental health and addiction concerns in patients...