Replies to post #130944 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Good to know that we’re still in agreement on the main point: that PBM’s add no value for anyone but themselves.

I can assume that there are some business owners that read this board, so I will be a gentle as possible. Don't be uneducated and/or lazy. The best why to control your medical costs is to personally control as much of the supply costs as possible.

Maybe the Lipitor case will be a wake-up call but, given your familiarity with the matter, I rather doubt it. Regards, Dew

[DewDiligence]

The Preserve Community Pharmacy Access NOW! coalition today urged the Federal Trade Commission to heed the call of a growing number of Americans asking for increased scrutiny of the planned merger between Express Scripts Inc. and Medco Health Solutions Inc., two pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nationwide-Coalition-Urges-prnews-662827767.html?x=0&l=1

[DewDiligence]

Re: Lipitor and the evil PBM’s

“Plan sponsors need to evaluate their contracts to see
how much, if any, of the Lipitor rebate money they receive.
It is unlikely they will receive any of it.”

—Dave Marley, pharmacist and spokesman for Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency (PUTT)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/30/pfizers-lipitor-how-big-pharma-blocks-reimbursement-of-generics/

Echoes what you’ve been saying.

[DewDiligence]

LOL re this PR from ESRX:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Express-Scripts-Medco-Save-prnews-762798262.html?x=0

[DewDiligence]

WAG and ESRX settle long-running row, which means patients can again fill ESRX prescriptions at WAG:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/express-scripts-walgreens-announce-pharmacy-120000883.html

[DewDiligence]

Fortune Magazine exposé on PBMs bears out everything you said about them (in #msg-68940530 and #msg-35353328):

http://fortune.com/2013/10/10/painful-prescription/

Meridian Health Systems, a nonprofit hospital chain was in the unusual position of being a seller of drugs to ESRX from its own pharmacies and a buyer of drugs from ESRX for its employee healthcare plan. Meridian did some checking and found that ESRX was marking up the price of some generic drugs by as much as 300%.

Even when confronted with hard data on the egregious spreads ESRX was exploiting, ESRX personnel continued to maintain that its own economic interests were aligned with Meridian’s. However, Meridian wised up and switched to one of the smaller “transparent” PBMs that charges a flat administrative fee per prescription with no markup.