Content about Pharmaceutical care management association

A new bill (HB 365) in Florida's state legislature would allow pharmacists to substitute biosimilars for branded biotech drugs, according to published reports. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that the Health Quality Subcommittee of the Florida House of Representatives approved a bill that would allow for substitution while requiring pharmacists to notify prescribing physicians within five days and require the doctor and pharmacist to maintain a record for at least four years. A similar bill (SB 732) is pending in the Florida Senate, according to reports.

Pharmacy benefit managers are becoming increasingly adept at leveraging the power of generics to save client healthcare dollars and improve their own standing, reports indicated.

"The opportunity for lowering costs by promoting generics over brands has never been greater, given the unprecedented number of drugs set to lose patent protection over the next few years," noted the "2012 Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care."

Are pharmacists the weak link in the drug diversion chain? That’s what the pharmacy benefit management lobby seems to imply in a new and controversial ad campaign that questions whether community pharmacists are doing all they should to halt the illegal flow of narcotics from the legitimate pharmaceutical supply chain to the dealer on the street.

Multibillion-dollar pharmacy benefit management companies are advertising aggressively to try to convince Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to approve a merger between Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions (“PCMA launches advertising campaign,” Drug Store News, Jan. 17).

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration reached a major milestone on the path to a regulatory regime for follow-on biologics on Thursday with the release of draft guidance on biosimilar product development.

NEW YORK — New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed into law a bill that would forbid health insurers from requiring plan members to order prescription drugs from mail-order pharmacies, according to published reports. 

WASHINGTON — Pharmacy benefit management tools helped slow prescription drug spending growth from 5.3% in 2009 to 3.5% in 2010, according to a new study by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

One PBM tool that helped was tiered co-pays that shifted medication use toward lower-cost generic drugs.

WASHINGTON — The head of a group representing the nation's pharmacy benefit managers got honors from the Generic Pharmaceutical Association.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association announced Thursday that president and CEO Mark Merritt had received the GPhA’s Outstanding Contribution Award at the generic drug industry group’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. The organization has advocated increased generic drug utilization and found common cause with the generics industry in its support for follow-on biologics.

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.

ALEXANDRIA, Va., and WASHINGTON — The war of words between independent pharmacies and the pharmacy benefit management industry again is heating up. And again, the two groups are at odds over the question of how transparent — or opaque — the PBM industry’s business dealings with its clients are, and whether those business practices demand reform.

NEW YORK Support for a regulatory pathway for biosimilars has grown rapidly, and even a few branded companies, such as Merck & Co. and Pfizer, have expressed interest. But Rep. Henry Waxman's, D-Calif., request that the Obama administration look for legal means to let the FDA approve biosimilars before his bill, its companion in the Senate or fellow California Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo’s competing bill is put to a vote, is a strong signal that biogenerics are going to be a reality in American health care — and sooner rather than later.