Legislative update: Week 4

Don’t miss Greg Reybold’s latest update on what’s happening at the capitol. Our major anti-steering bill, which will prohibit PBMs from sending patients to PBM-owned pharmacies, is about to be introduced! Greg also reports on the students at the Gold Dome, plus a new bill prohibiting dextromethorphan from being sold to minors. See it and previous updates at GPhA.org/legislativeupdates.

Did a PBM pressure drug makers?

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts think so, looking at a letter from OptumRx that “demanded almost two years of advance notice from pharma companies before they lower the prices of their drugs.”

Said the analysts: “This would feed into the narrative that the middlemen in the supply chain are part of the problem for high drug costs.”

Tainted valsartan: not just China

Add Pfizer’s Japanese products — which actually come from India via Mylan Pharmaceuticals — to the list of recalled blood pressure meds.

Can you do a better track and trace?

The FDA is soliciting ideas for using modern tech to better track and trace drugs in the U.S. supply chain. By 2023 it wants a totally interoperable system connecting manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors.

When hospitals collide, er, merge

The idea was that larger hospitals could use economies of scale to do better for patients. The reality … not so much. “[E]vidence from three decades of hospital mergers does not support the claim that consolidation improves quality.”

Vitamin C and diabetes

Patients with type 2 diabetes who took 1000 mg of vitamin C each day had a significant drop in blood glucose levels after meals — 36 percent. Caveat: It was a small study: 31 people.