The pharma industry is still in a bit of a tizzy about the lawsuits alleging improprieties in pricing, with some saying there will be wholesale changes (pun intended) while others ho-hum the notion. But, as more information comes out regarding the McKesson – First DataBank suits, there appears to be more to the notion that changes are in the wind.
This is not just an item of passing interest; the plaintiffs in the suit alleged that these pricing practices have cost payers upwards of $6 billion over a three-year period.

Continue reading AWP suits – what, if any impact?

Walmart will be introducing their discount program for selected generics to shoppers in California shortly, causing much gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes by pundits, independent pharmacies, and generic manufacturers.
What’s really going on here?

Continue reading Wal-Mart’s drug deals hit California

Wal-mart’s $4 generic program is growing – more stores, more states, and more scripts are now covered. The latest information has the giant retailer’s cheap program operating in over 3000 in-store pharmacies in 32 states. And, the list of drugs has expanded to include 331 prescriptions.
I’ve received some flak from readers who seem to object to my past posts questioning why Wal-mart is doing this.

Continue reading Wal-mart’s rapidly growing $4 plan

Retail pharmacy chain CVS is buying pharmacy benefit manager Caremark in a deal that will create a really big vertically integrated drug company.
Here’s what is behind the deal.
CVS wants more control over its customer base, and with more and more consumers buying their drugs through PBMs, they get more control by creating the industry’s biggest PBM. As I’ve noted before, the market power of PBMs will only increase as Part D becomes the primary force driving retail drug purchasing behavior.
CVS decided that rather than be at the end of the supply chain, it had to move up if it was to control its destiny.

Continue reading The CVS – Caremark deal – why?

The world (at least the very small part of it that I inhabit) has been buzzing about Wal-Mart’s announcement that it will be pricing almost 300 generic drugs at $4 for a 30 day supply. Newspapers, private equity firms, PBMs, drug manufacturers, insurers, policy makers, and politicians are all rambling on about the various significant impacts this will have on the world, among them improving the lives of the uninsured.
I don’t get it.

Continue reading Wal-Mart’s $4 drugs – much ado about not much

In what has to go down as perhaps the least surprising news of the political season, big pharma is panicked that Democrats are going to take over Congress.
Panicked may be too mild a word.

Continue reading Congressionally-induced nightmare