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☆ Pharmacy deserts are appearing across U.S. as drug stores closures spread
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-11 | by ( Kevin Williams | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

"As long as the big three PBMs go unchecked, more pharmacy deserts will appear," Rochol said. Between 2023 and 2024, independent pharmacies in the CVS Caremark pharmacy network were reimbursed 67.5% higher on average than CVS Pharmacy locations, and 51.9% higher than other chain pharmacies in the state. The CVS spokesman also said that CVS pharmacies are not all serviced by Caremark, working with over 70 different PBMs. "There are unfortunately many factors for pharmacy closures in rural areas, including population declines and the growing use of online pharmacies." But Banas believes the pharmacy deserts will only grow, and lead to an increase the number of apps and digitization.

Persons: Rochol, Miranda Rochol, Health —, —, Joyce Dingman, wasn't, Nickerson, David Nickerson, Tim Wentworth, Greg Lopes, Steven C, Anderson, Colin Banas, Banas, it's, Tamera Hughes, Hughes, Rob Anderson Organizations: FTC, Health, Federal Trade Commission, Aids, Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Cigna, Walgreens Boots, CVS Pharmacy, Caremark, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, National Community Pharmacists, National Association of Chain Drug, U.S, Congress, Amazon, University's, of Pharmacy, Pharmacists, Aid Locations: United States, PBMs, New Lebanon, Ohio, Dayton, New Lebanon's, Rust, New Lebanon , Ohio, Georgia, NACDS

☆ Hims & Hers is getting into the weight-loss drug game — and Wall Street is loving it
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Hims & Hers will sell weight-loss injectables starting at $200 a month. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . The online pharmacy said Monday it will sell compounded GLP-1 injections — which contain the same active ingredient as brand-name mainstays like Ozempic and Wegovy — starting at $200 a month. The list prices for Ozempic and Wegovy are $935.77 and $1,349.02, respectively.

Persons: —, Wegovy Organizations: Service, Business

☆ Amazon launches same-day prescription delivery in New York and Los Angeles
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Amazon Pharmacy home screen is displayed on a laptop in Brooklyn, New York, on Nov. 17, 2020. The e-commerce giant said on Tuesday that it's rolling out same-day delivery of prescription medications in New York City and the greater Los Angeles area. To speed up deliveries, Amazon said it's using new, smaller facilities, stocked with the most common prescription medications for acute conditions. San Bernardino, Riverside and Anaheim, which are all in the LA area, are eligible for same-day prescription deliveries starting Tuesday. In October, Amazon began offering same-day prescription medication delivery in Seattle, Miami, Indianapolis, Phoenix and Austin, Texas.

Persons: Doug Herrington Organizations: Amazon Pharmacy, Amazon, Worldwide Amazon Stores, Station , Locations: Brooklyn , New York, New York City, Los Angeles, Bernardino, Riverside, Anaheim, LA, Seattle , Miami, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Austin , Texas, Station, Station , Texas, New York

☆ An 83-year-old who moved from New York to Florida explains how she's working to prevent loneliness and make friends — without playing pickleball
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Back in New York, Rosalind said she was active with her friends, playing tennis and pickleball at a local club. To attempt to find other social connections, Rosalind said she's taken up playing bridge, participating in a book club, and attending local plays. While moving to a new place can be an isolating experience for anyone, loneliness tends to hit older adults especially hard. Advertisement"The most important thing in life is family and then friends," Rosalind said. 'It's not an easy road'After spending over 80 years in New York, Rosalind said she's still getting used to the quieter life in Florida.

Persons: Rosalind, Rosalind —, —, she's, She's, Vivek Murthy, there's, they're, Maria Maki, Democratic Sen, Chris Murphy, Bob Casey, Murphy, Rosalind isn't Organizations: Service, Democratic Locations: New York, Florida, York, Minnesota

☆ CVS is hit with a $250,000 fine for understaffing a store so badly that it was a month behind on filling prescriptions
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A CVS store in Ohio was in a state of disarray when the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy visited it. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . The decision follows an investigation by the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy, which sent inspectors to CVS' store in Canton, north-east Ohio, in mid-September 2021. The pharmacy was more than a month behind in filling prescriptions, the worker said. The Board said on Tuesday that the store would have to pay a monetary penalty of $250,000.

Persons: —, they'd, We've, We're Organizations: of Ohio, of Pharmacy, Service, CVS, State of Ohio, Staff Locations: Ohio, Canton

It forecast an adjusted core loss of 30 million to 40 million Swiss francs ($33.4 million to $44.5 million) in 2023, compared to the previous range of 20-40 million. DocMorris also cut its 2023 external revenue outlook, expecting a high single-digit percentage decline in local currency, from a previously expected mid-single-digit drop. Its external revenue fell by 5.8% to 256 million Swiss francs in the third quarter, below the 262 million francs expected by analysts polled by the company. Redcare Pharmacy (RDC.DE) earlier in October said its third quarter sales rose by two thirds, aided by double-digit growth in sales of non-prescription products. But analysts said DocMorris had weighed on the wider sector and Redcare Pharmacy's shares fell around 3% on Thursday.

Persons: DocMorris, Redcare, Baader Helvea, Pharmacy's, Tristan Veyet, Milla Nissi, Barbara Lewis Organizations: DocMorris, Thomson Locations: Swiss, Germany, Gdansk

☆ Weight loss drugs boost sales at retail pharmacies, but they may not help profits much
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

George Frey | ReutersDrugmakers aren't the only ones feeling the impact of the weight loss industry gold rush. Retailers with pharmacy businesses, such as Walmart , Kroger and Rite Aid , said increased demand for prescription weight loss drugs helped boost sales for the second quarter. Are weight loss drugs profitable? A selection of injector pens for the Saxenda weight loss drug are shown in this photo illustration in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., March 31, 2023. For one, branded drugs don't directly compete with other medications because they have patent protections.

Persons: George Frey, Reuters Drugmakers, Arun Sundaram, it's, Elon Musk, Eli Lilly, Doug McMillon, Matthew Schroeder, Schroeder, Rodney McMullen, CFRA Research's Sundaram, Michael Lasser, Jim Vondruska, USC's Schaeffer Organizations: KR NOVO.B, Novo Nordisk, Pharmacy, Reuters, Walmart, Kroger, Rite, CFRA Research, CNBC, Nordisk, Elon, Pfizer, UBS, USC's, USC's Schaeffer Center for Health, Association Locations: Provo , Utah, U.S, GLP, Chicago , Illinois

☆ Amazon Pharmacy automates discounts to help insulin patients get pledged prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Patrick Wingrove | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Aug 15 (Reuters) - Amazon.com (AMZN.O) said on Tuesday its online pharmacy will automatically apply manufacturer-sponsored coupons to more than 15 insulin and diabetes medicines to help patients access discounts pledged by the drug industry. Vin Gupta, Amazon Pharmacy's Chief Medical Officer, said the report highlighted the need to make it easier for patients to get their insulin at the lowest possible prices. Amazon Pharmacy will also automatically apply available discounts to diabetes-related medical devices from manufacturers Dexcom and Insulet, including continuous glucose monitors and pumps, as well as to other cardiometabolic medicines such as Novo's powerful weight-loss drug Wegovy. American Diabetes Association Chief Executive Officer Charles Henderson said Amazon's automated discounting would help the 37 million Americans with diabetes more easily access the treatments they need. So, we're going to create options that gives them access to these medications," Amazon Pharmacy Vice President John Love told Reuters.

Persons: Eli Lilly, Lilly, Elizabeth Warren, Vin Gupta, Wegovy, Charles Henderson, John Love, Patrick Wingrove, Sandra Maler Organizations: Amazon Pharmacy, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Amazon, Congress, American Diabetes Association, Walgreens, Reuters, Thomson Locations: New York

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday gave a boost to whistleblowers in their bid to revive lawsuits accusing pharmacy operators of knowingly overbilling government health insurance programs for prescription drugs at taxpayers' expense. Whistleblower advocacy groups as well as a number of states had said a Supreme Court ruling against the whistleblowers would make it easier for fraudsters to evade accountability for filing false claims to the government and risked undermining state-administered Medicaid programs. They also said both companies knew they were defrauding the government and worked to conceal their pricing practices. President Joe Biden's administration backed the whistleblowers in their appeal to the Supreme Court. Lawyers for the administration urged the justices to reverse the 7th Circuit, saying the ruling undermined the False Claims Act.

Persons: Clarence Thomas, Thomas Proctor, Tracy Schutte, Michael Yarberry, SuperValu, Joe Biden's, John Kruzel, Will Dunham Organizations: U.S, Supreme, Safeway Inc, Albertsons Companies Inc, SuperValu Inc, United Natural Foods Inc, Government, Conservative, Safeway, Circuit, Lawyers, Thomson Locations: Chicago

☆ The pharmacy that quietly powered top startups in the hottest part of healthcare is trying to reinvent itself after losing customers and closing facilities
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

"We were shocked," a former employee in Truepill's business development division said of the layoffs. Insider spoke with five former and two current Truepill employees about the challenges the company is confronting after a tumultuous year. Truepill was hiring employees rapidly, accumulating about 1,800 employees by the spring of 2022, according to one former employee in Truepill's business division. Since then, there's been a companywide push to inch closer to profitability, one of the current employees told Insider. It's also downsizing its Miami pharmacy, the current employee said.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he's confident he can get costs under control in shareholder letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +38 min

Further, as machine learning adoption has continued to accelerate, customers have yearned for lower-cost GPUs (the chips most commonly used for machine learning). While some areas of the economy have struggled over the past few years, Amazon Business has thrived. Some people have never heard of Amazon Business, but, our business customers love it. For years, Amazon customers had asked us when we'd offer them an online pharmacy as their frustrations mounted with current providers. More recently, a newer form of machine learning, called Generative AI, has burst onto the scene and promises to significantly accelerate machine learning adoption.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says his letter to shareholders follows one of the toughest economic years in recent memory. Read it in full.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +38 min

☆ Meet the typical CVS shopper: a white, Gen X, college-educated city dweller earning a high income
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

CVS's average customer is a white, urban Gen Xer earning a high annual income. Numerator found that CVS's typical shopper is a white, urban Gen Xer who has a college education and an annual income of more than $80,000. In addition to OTC pain medication and cough remedies, the typical retail shopper often prefers to buy candies, chocolates, and bottled water. Just 1.6% of a CVS shopper's total dollars are spent at CVS, compared with 6.8% of their spending on Amazon. At other retailers, the CVS shopper buys more fresh garlic, hand sanitizer, bar soap, and non-dairy milk alternatives than the national average shopper.

☆ Pharmacy startups are losing their battle with giants like CVS and Walgreens
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Pharmacy startups like Capsule and Truepill are crumbling in the fight against pharmacy giants. But in the past year, the pharmacy startups have begun to crumble. Plus, each chain has thousands of stores across the country, providing the convenience that the pharmacy startups seek to replicate with tech. The digital-pharmacy shakeoutAnalysts suggested that healthcare startups with pharmacy components, rather than pure-play pharmacy startups, are best positioned to succeed. Truepill CEO Sid Viswanathan TruepillBut the pharmacy startups that have attempted to offer additional services have largely shelved those efforts in recent months.

Bank shares rebounded sharply on Monday after First Citizens BancShares Inc (FCNCA.O) said it would acquire the deposits and loans of Silicon Valley Bank, whose collapse earlier this month sparked a selloff in the sector. "The fact that we've got answers on Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Credit Suisse means that we have more answers than questions," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth in Boston. Lawmakers are expected to put U.S. bank regulators on the defensive over the unexpected failures of regional lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank when they testify before Congress later on Tuesday. The S&P 500 and Dow rose on Monday after the SVB deal was announced, while the Nasdaq Composite closed lower, led by a decline in technology-related stocks. The S&P index recorded five new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 13 new highs and 40 new lows.

☆ Walgreens won't dispense abortion pills in some Republican states
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 2 (Reuters) - Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA.O) on Thursday said it will not dispense abortion pills in the states of 20 Republican attorneys general who have told the pharmacy chain it risked breaking the law should it dispense them to the states by mail. The decision comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone pills, including by mail, provided they are certified under special safety rules for the drug. A Walgreens spokesperson said the pharmacy's decision was in response to a letter from the attorneys general. They said Walgreens intended to become a certified pharmacy and would only dispense in jurisdictions where it was legal to do so. Mifepristone, used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, is approved for abortion within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

☆ White House: Unacceptable for states to target access to federally approved abortion pills
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday that it was "dangerous and unacceptable" for elected officials to target women's access to federally approved medication abortion pills. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds a press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Leah MillisWalgreens announced on Thursday it would not dispense abortion pills in the 20 states where attorneys general have told the pharmacy chain it risked breaking the law should it provide them through the mail. "Elected officials targeting pharmacies and their ability to provide women with access to safe, effective and FDA-approved medication is dangerous and just unacceptable," Karine Jean-Pierre, press secretary for the White House, said when asked about the pharmacy's announcement. Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Tim AhmannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ I tried getting my prescriptions from Amazon Pharmacy's new RxPass. It took forever, so I'll stick with walking over to CVS.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon Pharmacy just launched a prescription service for generic medicines. For a $5 flat fee, Amazon Prime members can get access to generic medications for 80 common health conditions, like allergies, anxiety, and diabetes. I decided to see how the RxPass works first hand by ordering my generic medicine through the new service. In a statement, Dr. Vin Gupta, chief medical officer of Amazon Pharmacy, said: "We are always listening to patient feedback to improve our products and services, and we'll continue to do that with RxPass." Here's what I did to get my medicine from Amazon Pharmacy's new RxPass.

☆ I used Amazon's new RxPass to get my prescriptions for just $5. It took forever and I probably won't use it again.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon Pharmacy just launched a prescription service for generic medicines. Setting up my prescriptions took forever and I probably won't use it again. For a $5 flat fee, Amazon Prime members can get access to generic medications for 80 common health conditions, like allergies, anxiety, and diabetes. I decided to see how the RxPass works first hand by ordering my generic medicine through the new service. Here's what I did to get my medicine from Amazon Pharmacy's new RxPass.

Jan 24 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said on Tuesday it is offering a $5 monthly subscription plan for U.S. Prime members that will cover a range of generic drugs and their doorstep delivery, furthering the ecommerce giant's push into healthcare. The program, named RxPass, includes more than 50 medications addressing over 80 chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, anxiety, diabetes and male pattern baldness, Vin Gupta, Amazon Pharmacy's chief medical officer, told Reuters. However, customers enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid or any other government healthcare program will not be able to enroll in Amazon Pharmacy's RxPass service. The average Prime member would save about $100 per year with RxPass, John Love, vice president of Amazon Pharmacy, said in an interview. Amazon Prime members in most U.S. states can sign up for the program from Tuesday.

☆ Mark Cuban’s pharmacy startup is actually making drugs less expensive. It's still working on solving the real problem
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-28 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Imatinib, a leukemia medication with a retail price of more than $2,500, is just $14.40 at Cost Plus Drugs. But experts say that Cost Plus Drugs' impact is limited, at least for now, because it hasn't broken into the market driving those exorbitant prices: brand-name drugs. Instead of negotiating prices through those pharmacy benefit managers, Cost Plus Drugs directly negotiates with manufacturers to get generic drugs at wholesale prices. The trade-off: Cost Plus Drugs doesn't accept insurance claims, since insurers don't typically work with pharmacies that avoid pharmacy benefit managers. That gives drugmakers little-to-no incentive to offer rebates to Cost Plus Drugs, Hernandez notes.

☆ Meet the typical Walgreens shopper, a white college-educated suburban baby boomer earning $80,000
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-26 | by ( Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Walgreens' average customer is a white suburban baby boomer earning over $80,000 per year. Slightly less than two-thirds of all US shoppers are Walgreens customers, according to data from the analytics firm Numerator prepared for Insider. Numerator found that Walgreens' typical shopper is a white suburban Baby Boomer who has a college education and an annual income of more than $80,000. Like CVS shoppers, Walgreens customers have an affinity for M&M's and Reese's candies and Hallmark greeting cards, but prefer Coca Cola sodas where CVS customers prefer Colgate toothpaste. Just 1.3% of a Walgreens shopper's total dollars are spent at Walgreens, compared with 11% of their spending at Walmart.

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