The Benefits of the Retail Drug Market and Why, When Civica RX Will be Taking Steps Further
In this part three video series, Civica Rx CEO Martin VanTrieste says Civica is launching an outpatient retail market with its first retail drug coming to the market next year.
Q: Is Civica Rx sticking to the hospital market?
A: We announced a while ago that with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and 17 Blue Cross affiliates, we were launching an outpatient retail market initiative. So we are working with BlueCross BlueShield. We have talked to others. We have other insurance companies involved in the mix. For example, Kaiser Permanente, who is a member of Civica, they're an integrated delivery network, they have retail pharmacies that will be supplying their retail pharmacies, but we are entering the retail market.
Q: Have you actually started to supply retail drugs? Or is this something that's going to happen next year and if so what will it be?
A: Our first drug will be in the retail market in 2022. For competitive reasons we wouldn't want to say that because that would signal someone else's doing - something incorrectly. That would lead to them changing their ways and keep us out of the market and then still have bad behavior somewhere else. So we're not going to notice that.
Q: What is the rationale behind entering the retail market? Is that also to address shortage issues? Or is that really a question of addressing price?
A: It's really a question of affordability and quality of the medicines. If you read books like The Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eben, or China RX by Rosemary Gibson, you have to be concerned about what we're importing out of China and India. We'll make these products in the United States. We'll enforce strict quality standards and we'll do that at an affordable price. You'll see in the retail market, big spans of pricing of a single chemical drag of a single generic drug between one pharmacy and another.
That's not because pharmacy negotiates better than the other one. There's just manipulation of pricing going through the pharmaceutical supply chain. The Wall Street Journal has a good infographic video about drug pricing and how complex it is. I think it's something that you might want to have all your viewers take a look at, because it's eye-opening how that pricing is set.
David Calabrese of OptumRx Talks New Role, Market Insulin Prices and Other Topics 'On His Mind'
April 13th 2023In this month’s episode of the "What's On Your Mind podcast," Peter Wehrwein, managing editor of MHE connects with the now Chief Clinical Officer of OptumRx Integrated Pharmacies, David Calabrese. In this conversation, David touches on his transition in January as OptumRx’s former chief pharmacy officer and market president of health plans and PBMs to his new role as Chief Clinical Officer where he now focuses more on things such as specialty pharmacy to home delivery — with an overall goal of creating whole-patient care. Throughout the conversation, Calabrese also touched on the market’s hot topic of insulin prices and behavioral health services within the OptumRx community, among other topics.
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Upended: Can PBM Transparency Succeed?
March 6th 2024Simmering tensions in the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry have turned into fault lines. The PBMs challenging the "big three" have formed a trade association. Purchaser coalitions want change. The head of the industry's trade group says inherent marketplace friction has spilled over into political friction.
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Briana Contreras, editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, spoke with Nancy Lurker, CEO and president of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals. Nancy shared a bit about EyePoint and how the organization’s innovative therapies are addressing patient needs through eye care, and most importantly, she addressed C-Suite positions like the CEO role. Nancy shared advice for those seeking to reach the CEO level, especially toward women in healthcare and other roles, and what it takes to run a biopharma company.
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The deliberate disconnection of Change Healthcare to ring fence a cyberattack entered its seventh day today. Prescribers are finding ways to get pharmacy claims processed, and UnitedHealth Group says disruption to the dispensing of prescriptions has been minimal. But independent pharmacies want more information and protection from financial consequences from pharmacy benefit managers.
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