Bill would prevent PBMs from owning pharmacies

ICYMI: A bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress that would prohibit health insurers or PBMs from also owning pharmacies. For example, CVS Health would have three years to divest itself of CVS Pharmacy, while PBMs like Express Scripts would need to divest their mail-order pharmacies.

If passed, the legislation would be the most far-reaching intervention yet into the operations of pharmacy-benefit managers, known as PBMs, and their parent companies, cutting off a major source of revenue for the companies and frustration for patients.

The chances of the bill passing in this Congress are just about zero, but look for it to appear again early next year.

Amusing note: You can tell how the Wall Street Journal headline writer feels — apparently it’s a congressional “plot” to force these breakups.

Walgreens enters the endgame

Walgreens is looking to sell itself to a private equity firm next year, which likely spells the beginning of the end for the pharmacy retail giant.

Private equity firms typically take a company, run it into the ground with cost-cutting, employee-burning-out, and quality-reduction measures until employees and customers give up. Then the company goes into bankruptcy and whatever remains of the carcass is sold off.

Anyone remember Toys ‘R’ Us? The Limited? Friendly’s? Red Lobster?

This is still just a possibility, though — “looking to sell itself” isn’t the same as “signing a contract.”

Short takes

It’s malaria

The Mysterious Respiratory Virus that’s killed more than 30 people in the “Democratic” Republic of the Congo contains the malaria virus. The question remains, though: Is it just malaria, or is something mixed in with it?

The latest GLP-1 trick

A study out of Harvard Med found that GLP-1 drugs reduce the risk of venous thromboembolism — i.e., serious blood clots. Here’s the twist: It works regardless of the patients’ weight, and even before patients start losing weight. So, “It may be beyond just weight loss that there is an impact.”

Coffee … with salt

A new study once again shows the benefits of coffee. This one claims that …

[M]oderate coffee consumption (three cups per day) not only contributes to a longer life but also enhances the quality of those additional years by reducing the risk of major age-related diseases and maintaining better overall health.

Wow! And that’s just three cups, which is about 1 ½ typical mugs!

Oh, wait. The study was funded by … coffee companies (via their “Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee”).

Here at Buzz we’re optimistic about the benefits of coffee, but we don’t trust any organization that tries to obscure its bias, so here’s your grain of salt:

SCOTUS upholds 340B

The Supreme Court said it wouldn’t hear a lawsuit from drug makers (via their trade association, PhRMA) challenging a provision in Arkansas’s 340B program. The Arkansas law required pharma companies to give “discounts on drugs dispensed by third-party pharmacies that contract with hospitals and clinics serving low-income populations.” (That emphasis is critical.)

Refresher:

• The federal 340B discount program requires drug makers to discount drugs sold to hospitals that serve low-income people.
• HHS said in 2010 that those hospitals could use either in-house or contract pharmacies and still get the discounts.
• Pharma companies didn’t like this one bit, claiming that there wasn’t enough transparency with contract pharmacies. (Yes, that’s hypocrisy right there.) They started restricting sales to those pharmacies.
• Some states, like Arkansas, passed laws saying that drug makers had to give those discounts to contract pharmacies.
• Cue the PhRMA lawsuit.

Now that the Arkansas law has effectively been upheld, the matter is settled: Drug makers must give discounts on medications used by low-income patients at hospitals or clinics, regardless of the dispensing pharmacy.

Until they find a workaround, of course.