Content about Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY — Legislation that would require pharmacy benefit managers to seek licensure from the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy if they were to distribute medicines to Oklahoma residents was introduced on Tuesday, according to an Associated Press report. 

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — "Dollar Tree has grown steadily for 26 years,” said Bob Sasser, president and CEO of Dollar Tree. That steady growth has led Dollar Tree to expand its Marietta, Okla. distribution center by 400,000 sq. ft., the company announced.

The facility in Marietta opened in 2003 and is currently 603,000 sq. ft. This facility supplies products to our stores across eleven states, including all of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, and portions of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.

 DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Monday announced that it has completed its purchase of 144 stores operating under the USA Drug, Super D Drug, May’s Drug, Med-X and Drug Warehouse banners located in Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

The acquisition also includes corporate offices, a distribution center located in Pine Bluff, Ark., and a wholesale and private brand business, for a total of approximately $438 million subject to adjustment in certain circumstances.

Another quality regional drug chain is about to be a memory.

Community pharmacy’s high-stakes pushback against the powerful pharmacy benefit management lobby continues.

ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday issued its latest update on the influenza season to date, or rather the lack thereof. For the week ended Feb. 25, visits for influenza-like illnesses have yet to crack the national baseline of 2.4% this season.

Over the past two seasons, 2009/2010 and 2010/2011, reports of ILI activity reached levels approaching 8% and 5%, respectively, after crossing over that 2.4% threshold — an indicator that the flu season is well under way.

EDMOND Okla. — According to a report prepared last month by the Economic Impact Group discerning the impact prescription-only pseudoephedrine would have on Oklahoma citizens, prescription-only PSE would result in almost 300,000 additional doctor's office visits at an estimated cost reaching $60 million; $6 million would be directly borne by consumers.

WASHINGTON — The concept of medication therapy management has become more developed, and certain aspects of it have become established within the organizations providing and paying for it, according to a white paper published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. — Walmart is gearing up to open a Neighborhood Market store this month in Midwest City, Okla.

The 40,000-sq.-ft. format will offer customers quick access to low-cost groceries, prescriptions and household products. The store officially will open its doors on Sept. 21.

As previously reported, Walmart president and CEO Bill Simon said that the Neighborhood Market format is being rebranded as Walmart Market.

WASHINGTON — The rate of obesity among adults has increased across 16 states, with no states seeing a drop, according to a new report released by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The report also found that 12 states now have obesity rates above 30%, versus four years ago when just one state had a 30% obesity rate, TFAH and RWJF said.

NEW YORK — Bills introduced in the legislatures of nearly a dozen states have pharmacy benefit managers and the generic drug industry fearing that the bills could lead to limits on doctors’ abilities to prescribe generics through e-prescribing.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, the main lobby for PBMs, said the bills would prohibit doctors from seeing lower-cost drug options, including generics and preferred brands; would prevent the e-prescribing software from showing safety information; and would disallow lower-cost pharmacy options.