Walgreens to Purchase Rite Aid Stores

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Intelligent Solutions in Pharmacy Benefits
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Walgreens has finally received approval to acquire 1,932 Rite Aid stores, three distribution centers and inventory for $4.375 Billion in cash.  This acquisition will leave Rite Aid with 2,600 stores and thus, be one of the three remaining nationwide chain pharmacies together with CVS and Walgreens.  Walgreens will now be able to negotiate with drug manufacturers for lower drug costs, providing competition for CVS

The Rite Aid store purchases will begin in October and should be completed in the Spring of 2018 followed by rebranding those stores to Walgreens.  Most of the stores to be purchased are located in the Northeast and Southern United States.  As a result, Walgreens will have close to 10,000 locations (CVS has more than 9,600 stores) and expects to save about $300 Million annually through cost cuts over the next four years.   Walgreens also owns Duane Reade pharmacies .

It will be interesting to watch what happens to Rite Aid in the future as their stock plummets.    The deal does include the option for Rite Aid to join the Walgreens group purchasing  agreement for discounts on generics, which should help them to compete with the other chain pharmacies.

For additional reading, please access the following links:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rite-aid-m-a-walgreens-boots/walgreens-gets-regulators-nod-to-buy-rite-aid-stores-idUSKCN1BU1KP

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/19/news/walgreens-rite-aid-deal/index.html

PBIRx has been exclusively providing intelligent solutions to clients in the management of pharmacy benefit costs since 1993. With a staff that includes IT personnel, actuaries, financial analysts, clinical pharmacists, attorneys, HIPAA Compliance Officers and many more experts, PBIRx’s mission is to create optimal health care outcomes while minimizing overall health care costs. For more information, please visit www.pbirx.com or call (888) 797-2479.

New Cancer Drug Approved

PBIRx®
Intelligent Solutions in Pharmacy Benefits
12 Wheelers Farms Road, Milford, CT 06461
(888) 797-2479

The FDA has just approved the Novartis drug Kymriah, a groundbreaking treatment intended to cure a patient’s cancer.  The AWP cost is an estimated $570,000 and the WAC is $475,000.  This is the first gene therapy approved by the FDA; a one-time treatment using the patient’s own T cells to fight cancer.

Kymriah is approved to treat B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in children and young adults (up to age 25) whose cancer has come back after previous treatment or resisted treatment altogether.   Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer in the U.S.  There are approximately 3,100 patients aged 20 and younger who are diagnosed with ALL each year and 15-20 percent of the patients do not respond to the current treatment available. This new treatment option has shown promising remission and survival rates in the clinical trials.

Twenty treatment centers have been selected for the administration of the drug with an increase to 32 centers by the end of the year.  Additional expenses are incurred when Novartis collects the patient’s T-cells for re-engineering and when the personalized Kymriah is administered.

The FDA is committed to helping to expedite the development and review of groundbreaking treatments that have the potential to be life-saving. Please read the full FDA release from the link below.

https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm574058.htm

PBIRx has been exclusively providing intelligent solutions to clients in the management of pharmacy benefit costs since 1993. With a staff that includes IT personnel, actuaries, financial analysts, clinical pharmacists, attorneys, HIPAA Compliance Officers and many more experts, PBIRx’s mission is to create optimal health care outcomes while minimizing overall health care costs. For more information, please visit www.pbirx.com or call (888) 797-2479.