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...Silicon Valley startup NowRx decided to avoid venture capital dollars...The online pharmacy aims to raise $73 million series C funding through SeedInvest, an equity crowdfunding platform...Once completed, the series C round will bring the company’s total funding to more than $100 million...The startup, which provides same-day and same-hour prescription medication delivery and telehealth services, aims to use the funds to expand into additional territories, and accelerate the technology roadmap for its proprietary pharmacy management software and logistics technology...The raise comes on the heels of strong growth as the company charted $13.4 million in revenue in 2020...READ MORE

New York hospitals on Monday began firing or suspending healthcare workers for defying a state order to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and resulting staff shortages prompted some hospitals to postpone elective surgeries or curtail services...New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference the city's hospitals were not yet seeing a major impact from the mandate, adding he worried about other areas of the state where vaccination rates are lower...A spokeswoman for Catholic Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in Western New York, said it had reached full compliance, counting staff members who had been vaccinated, those with exemptions and some who had been suspended without pay...READ MORE

Results from a new HDA Research Foundation survey indicate that the pharmaceutical supply chain is entering a critical phase in achieving the transaction data connections required to comply with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act in 2023...The DSCSA requires transaction data with product identifiers to be provided with physical product on November 27, 2023...“many healthcare supply chain trading partners are realizing there is work to be done to establish proper business-to-business connections; ensure data are formatted, transmitted and received successfully; that processes for troubleshooting are created; and that products in inventory have the right data attached to them for shipping after November 27,” said Perry Fri...COO of the HDA Research Foundation. “The Foundation’s survey shows...what might be leading to slow implementation rates across the supply chain.”...READ MORE

GoodRx has entered into an agreement with Surescripts, to deliver drug discount price information to prescribers using Surescripts Real-Time Prescription Benefit when prescribing medications for uninsured patients and patients whose price information isn’t already available from their PBM or health plan...By improving price transparency at the point of care, prescribers can have more informed conversations with their patients and ensure they can afford the treatment they need before getting to the pharmacy counter...READ MORE

Pharmacy operators including CVS Health Corp and Walmart Inc fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic by failing to stop massive quantities of addictive painkillers from reaching the black market, a lawyer for two Ohio counties said at the start of a trial...Mark Lanier told a federal jury in Cleveland hearing the first trial the pharmacy chains have faced in nationwide litigation over the epidemic that the companies bore responsibility for drug abuse in the counties of Lake and Trumbull..."They just dispensed like a vending machine," Lanier said in his opening statement...READ MORE

National Community Pharmacists Association President Brian Caswell spoke to the Federal Trade Commission during its open meeting...about anticompetitive pharmacy benefit manager issues in the pharmaceutical supply chain...I have watched a steady increase of patients being forced or coerced into mail order which, more often than not, is owned by the (pharmacy benefit manager)...Also, a growing number of restricted medications which are classified as ‘specialty,’ with no clear clinical definition of why it is specialty, are contractually not allowed to be filled by the patient’s preferred pharmacist. Again, the prescription is steered towards the PBM’s own mail order....READ MORE

...“Why Pharmacies Overcharge,” an entertaining and provocative video on the pharmacy industry and its generic prescription pricing...It’s definitely worth your time...The video covers the history of pharmacy, from the “Soda Fountain Era” to “Lick, Stick, and Pour” to the rise of PBMs and GoodRx...READ MORE

A landmark opioid trial is getting underway in Cleveland. For the first time, pharmacies...will be on trial, and there will be far-reaching implications for big-ticket policy questions far afield of the opioid crisis...On one side will be Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart. On the other, two Ohio counties...The basic theory that will be trial-tested is whether pharmacies are legally responsible for creating a public nuisance by overlooking so-called “red flags” when filling customers’ prescriptions for FDA-approved opioids...READ MORE

The National Community Pharmacists Association is using social media, digital advertising, and a grassroots effort to push congressional budget makers to include a provision eliminating pharmacy benefit manager spread pricing under the Medicaid program and reimburse pharmacies in a fairer and more transparent manner...“PBM spread pricing costs federal and state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars every year. It does nothing to reduce the cost of drugs for Medicaid patients, and it drives local pharmacies out of business,” said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey...Spread pricing is what happens when pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs, charge insurance plans like Medicaid one price for prescription medications, reimburse pharmacies that dispense them a much lower price, and then keep a big chunk of the difference for themselves...READ MORE

During the COVID-19 pandemic many hospitals and health care services teams turned to telepharmacy to reduce delays in providing medications to patients while social distancing practices were in place. Hospitals quickly found that telepharmacy benefitted pharmacy services by providing patients with more efficient access to medical care and reducing costs. Thus, hospitals were able to focus more on patient care and less on logistics, which led to higher turnaround times and increased patient satisfaction...READ MORE