Pharmacy Industry News: Japanese team visits GITAM
Prescription Solutions by OptumRx Receives 4th Consecutive TIPPSSM Certification for Pharmacy Benefits Transparency Standards
Prescription Solutions by OptumRx, a leading pharmacy benefit management (PBM) organization and a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, announced it has received certification for the fourth consecutive year from the HR Policy Association (HR Policy) Pharmaceutical Coalition. The certification is part of HR Policy’s Transparency in Pharmaceutical Purchasing Solutions (TIPPS)SM initiative.
“TIPPS certification is an important contributor to our reputation as an industry leader. Every day we strive to show our commitment to our clients, and one element of that commitment is to be open and honest about our pricing structure.”
Prescription Solutions is one of five PBMs that provide Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC) pricing for mail order medications. The WAC is a nationally tracked index that closely reflects drug pricing dynamics.
“We want our clients to fully understand our pricing structure, as well as the overall value of their health benefits. This enables clients to provide cost control for their companies and employees,” said Ed Feaver, Pharm.D, president of OptumRx. “TIPPS certification is an important contributor to our reputation as an industry leader. Every day we strive to show our commitment to our clients, and one element of that commitment is to be open and honest about our pricing structure.”
TIPPS standards endorse contracting that enables employers – as well as their beneficiaries and dependents – to better understand the exact price of a medication. The standards were created to ensure that PBMs encourage the use of the most clinically sound and cost-effective medications available.
The HR Policy Association Pharmaceutical Coalition encompasses close to 60 association member companies and represents more than 5 million Americans. TIPPS certification allows Prescription Solutions to offer PBM services to members of the coalition.
About HR Policy Association
HR Policy Association is the lead organization representing chief human resource officers of major employers. The Association consists of more than 325 of the largest corporations doing business in the United States and globally, and these employers are represented in the organization by their most senior human resource executive. Collectively, their companies employ more than ten million employees in the United States, nearly nine percent of the private sector workforce, and 20 million employees worldwide. They have a combined market capitalization of more than $7.5 trillion. These senior corporate officers participate in the Association because of their commitment to improving the direction of human resource policy. Their objective is to use the combined power of the membership to act as a positive influence to better public policy, the HR marketplace, and the human resource profession.
Japanese team visits GITAM
A team of economics professors from Japan visited GITAM University here on Monday, as part of its study of India-Japan trade relations particularly in the pharmaceutical industry.
The team headed by a professor of Japan External Trade Organisation and Institute of Developing Economics Kensuke Kubo and professors of Kobe University’s Economics and Business Administration Research Institute Takahiro Sato and Ryukoku University’s Department of Economics Atsuko Kamiike interacted with GITAM University Vice-Chancellor G. Subramanyam.
Prof. Kensuke Kubo said Indian companies were among top in world in the pharmaceutical industry and some Japanese companies established their pharma plants in India. Japanese companies developed new medicines for diseases such as TB.
He said that Japan was interested in strengthen the relations with academic institutions such as GITAM.
Prof. Sato said there were huge business opportunities in the area of generic drug production. The recent India-Japan comprehensive economic partnership agreement was one of the largest agreements in the history of Japan and appreciated GITAM University for entering into an MoU with Japan-based Esai Pharmaceuticals.
It was for the first time that the team was hearing about university-industry partnerships, said Prof. Atsuko. GITAM was the only Indian university having an academic collaboration with a Japan company, she said.
Prof. Subramanyam explained the university’s association with reputed academic institutions and industries and the research work being done by the faculty.
Pro Vice-Chancellor D. Harinarayana, Registrar M. Potharaju, Institute of Pharmacy principal P. Suresh, Institute of Science principal N. Lakshmanadas and Prof. P.K. Sarma participated in the interactive session.
Pharmacists seek cure to drug delays from Pfizer
Canberra pharmacists say their customers are being forced to wait more than four days for some medicines because of a ”direct distribution” system adopted by drug company Pfizer earlier this year.
Drug wholesalers and some pharmacists want the Federal Government to intervene to ensure patients are able to access Pfizer medicines prescribed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme within 24 hours of orders being placed.
But Pfizer denied it was unable to deliver medicines on time and said it met 99per cent of orders by the next business day.
Ninety per cent of pharmacists who responded to a survey commissioned by the wholesale drug industry body, the Pharmaceutical Services Association, said they had experienced a deterioration in the timely and reliable supply of medicines since Pfizer began distributing its own products to pharmacies in February.
Medicines from other companies are distributed by wholesalers who receive government subsidies and are required to supply pharmacies within 24 hours of an order being placed.
Canberra pharmacist Chris Lawler yesterday said refrigerated Pfizer medicines ordered after 3pm on a Thursday could now take until the following Tuesday to arrive.
Mr Lawler, who works in several city pharmacies, said on several occasions the delays had forced him to drive to pharmacies in other parts of Canberra to collect medicines for vulnerable customers.
”You tell the patient you can’t use your injection or you can’t take your injection until sometime next Tuesday when I get it,” he said.
”In the past I’ve had to take a customer’s script, ask them for permission to get it dispensed at another pharmacy … I’ll drive to another pharmacy in another suburb to get it filled for them.”
Mr Lawler said pharmacies routinely borrowed medicines from each other when supplies were running low but this was becoming increasingly difficult when they all had low stocks of Pfizer products.
He was among a group of pharmacists and representatives of the Pharmaceutical Services Association who met staff of the Prime Minister’s Office and Leader of the Opposition’s Office to discuss the issue yesterday.
WellPoint Wants To See Express Scripts, Walgreen Mend Rift
Health-insurer WellPoint Inc. (WLP) is hoping pharmacy-benefit manager and business partner Express Scripts Inc. (ESRX) can mend fences with drugstore chain Walgreen Co. (WAG), and still sees a chance for resolution, a WellPoint executive said Tuesday.
Express Scripts, which handles prescription-drug benefits and claims for employers and health-insurer clients, signed a 10-year deal to serve WellPoint in December 2009. Express Scripts’ customers could lose access to thousands of U.S. pharmacies starting next year because it hasn’t been able to resolve differences over a new contract with Walgreen to replace one that expires at year end.
Though the public dispute has indicated broad differences, “I would not say we’re at the point of no return,” said Wayne DeVeydt, WellPoint’s chief financial officer, during a Morgan Stanley health-care conference.
“We’ve talked to both parties,” he said. “We want to see them settle their dispute.”
DeVeydt noted that WellPoint would like Walgreen to remain in Express Scripts’ network, but also said the insurer can live without Walgreen there, and that the key is getting WellPoint members the best available price. Walgreen has suggested losing access could hurt Express Scripts’ customer relationships, while Express Scripts has countered that it won’t run afoul of access provisions in its contracts and that its customers will have convenient access to other drugstores.
DeVeydt said WellPoint doesn’t see a business impact from the dispute, and that there are “other alternatives available to the customers.”
“Express Scripts is doing very much what we do with hospitals and providers, which is they are trying to get the best rate possible for the consumer,” DeVeydt said. “At the same time, we understand what Walgreens is trying to do as well.”
Express Scripts and Walgreen have offered different views of sticking points in their talks; the drugstore has said its costs are in line with other retail pharmacies, for example, but Express Scripts has said Walgreen would be the highest-cost pharmacy in its network under proposed rates.
Walgreen said last week that talks between the two sides “remain at an impasse” and that it has started informing patients it won’t be part of Express Scripts’ network starting next year. Express Scripts also has been preparing clients and members for the change.
Amid this dispute, Express Scripts plans to acquire rival benefit-manager Medco Health Solutions Inc. (MHS) in a deal that would create a clear industry heavyweight, and was valued at $29.1 billion when first announced in July. The drugstore industry has strongly opposed the deal.
As for the Walgreen talks, “our goal is to really focus that our consumers don’t get hurt in the negotiations,” WellPoint’s DeVeydt said.
The insurers’ shares recently traded up 3.9% to $65.87, following a sectorwide upswing fueled by comments from rival Aetna Inc. (AET), which said its full-year earnings view has improved based on signs that health-care usage trends have remained weak in the current quarter. WellPoint, meantime, confirmed its 2011 earnings estimate in a regulatory filing late Monday.