Shadow Pharmacy...Collusion

In the modern era of pharmacy practice, the patient's best interest and positive health outcomes are what really counts, right? That's what large corner pharmacies would like you to believe, and maybe at the individual patient-pharmacist interaction level it is. However, we all know that in corporate America and in a protected industry like pharmaceuticals it is money that talks, not patient outcomes, not satisfaction, and definitely not ethical decision making. In the past few years Walgreens and CVS have made power moves in the industry. They acquired other major players Rite-Aid and Target, which moves community pharmacy even closer to an oligopoly. At the surface, this looks like it could be moderately bad for patients. Less competition typically leads to higher prices for patients. Based on data collected from the PWC Research Institute, pharmacy costs have risen 21% since 2007.

This sounds pretty bad, right? Well, it gets worse. Pharmacy chains are making moves like this not to acquire solely the pharmacies and the market, but to acquire the PBMs that they own as well. PBM stands for Pharmacy Benefit Managers. These are companies that manage formularies for insurance companies, negotiate drug pricing, rebates, and reimbursing pharmacies. To break it down, CVS owns Caremark, Walgreens owns Rite-Aid who owned EnvisionRx, Express Scripts owns their own pharmacies and specialty drug services, and the list goes on. When you get all of these major players in the room working together you can almost feel the vibrations from the common American patient shaking in their boots. This is a recipe for disaster that the US federal government should intervene upon. In the past, the FTC deemed it was illegal for PBMs to own pharmaceutical companies and vice-versa due to conflict of interest. I don't see why this is any different. The game has stayed the same, but the names have changed. It is time for politicians to be tough on the pharmaceutical industry so that potential collusion can be nipped at the bud.

http://www.pwc.com/us/en/health-industries/health-research-institute/publications/assets/pwc-hri-behind-numbers-chartpack.pdf

https://qz.com/636823/big-pharmacies-are-dismantling-the-industry-that-keeps-us-drug-costs-even-sort-of-under-control/