Chain Drug Review, April 29, 2019

2 Chain Drug Review April 29 2019 News In This Issue Supplier News 13 IRI summit explores how to harness big data 15 Mylan purses access to medication as a major goal 16 Sundown Naturals launches its first organic line 17 Henkel strives to win No 1 spot in beauty market 18 Sera Labs a thriving CBD company with a difference 18 Edgewell strives to stay on top of personal trends My Turn 21 Contextualizing the value of retail Rx 22 The profit pool for U S prescription drugs is shrinking 28 How to get out from the suffocation miasma of DIR fees 30 Taking actions for flu season 34 With Amazonization of health care whats next for retailers 39 Something is rotten with e commerce food sales Chain Drug Review ISSN 0164 9914 is published biweekly every other Monday except for once in March May July and December 19 times a year by Racher Press Inc 126 Fifth Ave 12th floor New York N Y 10011 Subscription rates Manufacturers and their representatives 149 a year Schools libraries and all other out of 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Postmaster Send address changes to Chain Drug Review 126 Fifth Ave 12th floor New York N Y 10011 Vol 41 No 7 April 29 2019 CVS Caremark keeps prices in check WOONSOCKET R I CVS Health announced earlier this month that in 2018 the companys pharmacy benefit management solutions blunted the impact of drug price inflation achieving a negative 42 price growth for nonspecialty drugs and a 17 price growth for specialty drugs Furthermore 44 of CVS Caremarks commercial PBM clients saw their net prescription drug prices decline from 2017 to 2018 In 2018 CVS Caremarks focus on drug affordability simplifying prescription management and applying interventions to improve medication adherence have helped increase the percentage of optimally adherent members in such key chronic diseases as diabetes high cholesterol and depression which can result in reductions of nearly 2000 in the overall cost of care per member Over the last three years even as drug prices have increased by 25 CVS Caremark has helped our clients save more than 141 billion by blunting drug price inflation prioritizing the use of effective lower cost drugs and reducing the members out ofpocket spend said Derica Rice president of CVS Caremark the PBM business of CVS Health Moreover our focused adherence efforts have helped more members take their drugs as prescribed which we estimate has saved our clients an additional 183 billion in avoided medical costs since 2016 Managed formularies enable CVS Caremark to take advantage of market competition on behalf of its PBM clients and promote the use of effective lowercost drugs In fact in 2018 clients that adopted the managed formularies offered by the company saw savings of nearly 14 per 30 day prescription even as drug price inflation while slightly moderated grew four times faster than overall inflation Rising costs for the treatment of diabetes continue to challenge payers and patients but strategic management of the antidiabetic category helped CVS Caremark control overall spend In 2018 the trend for antidiabetic drugs was negative 17 despite increasing utilization and brand price inflation of 56 Formulary management strategies also played a key role in helping to keep insulin costs affordable for payers and consumers In 2017 CVS Caremark led the market in taking steps to blunt the impact of branded insulin price increases by making the less expensive long acting insulin Basaglar the preferred drug on the formulary This formulary change resulted in member out of pocket costs declining by 9 improved A1c levels and savings for payers Despite the growth of high deductible plan designs CVS Caremarks programs and solutions helped reduce out of pocket costs for consumers for the sixth straight year In fact two out of every three CVS Caremark members who used their prescription benefit in 2018 spent less than 100 on their prescriptions and more than 85 spent less than 300 In addition although medical costs have grown 14 since 2013 over that time period CVS Caremark members paid 84 less for a 30 day prescription The utilization and share of gross cost for specialty drugs continues to grow reaching 45 of total pharmacy spend in 2018 as compared to 42 in 2017 despite comprising only 1 of prescription claims overall In 2018 although manufacturer driven price inflation for specialty drugs measured 76 CVS Caremark was able to keep specialty drug price growth at just 17 for clients This was achieved through a tightly managed approach including effective formulary strategies indication and outcomes based contracting and utilization management to guide safe and appropriate use for patients dealing with complex and often debilitating conditions Prescription drug trend is the measure of growth in prescription spending per member per Derica Rice CVS Caremark month Trend calculations take into account the effects of drug price drug utilization and the mix of branded versus generic drugs as well as the positive effect of negotiated discounts and rebates on overall trend Walgreens partners with VillageMD DEERFIELD Ill Walgreens and VillageMD a leading national provider of primary care announced earlier this month a collaboration focused on providing adult patients in the Houston community with a transformative primary care experience VillageMD will operate state of the art primary care clinics next to five Walgreens stores in the Houston area with the first locations scheduled to open by the end of 2019 The conveniently located clinics branded Village Medical at Walgreens will provide comprehensive primary care services integrated tightly with pharmacists nurses and social workers to meet the full suite of patient needs Village Medical at Walgreens patients will benefit from VillageMDs patent pending docOS system which integrates data and technology to give patients the best care possible with a 360 degree view of their health needs DocOS identifies missing diagnoses and gaps in health allowing doctors and patients to better manage the chronic conditions that impede health and drive costs in the health care system The advanced technology includes an easy and convenient check in either by phone or a kiosk home based monitoring and telemedicine The two companies are exploring expansion of Village Medical at Walgreens primary care clinics in Houston and into other markets Beauty reinvention launched at Boots NOTTINGHAM England Boots UK this month opened the first of 24 stores to be part of the retailers beauty reinvention The new flagship store on High Street in Lincoln England dispenses with the traditional cosmetics counter and instead provides a number of trending zones discovery areas and live demonstrations offering shoppers the opportunity to browse and play with the latest cosmetics Boots also has introduced beauty specialists to help shoppers find personalized beauty solutions across brands which range from ultra premium to everyday cosmetics the company said in a statement More than 200 beauty specialists have been deployed in stores around the country The Lincoln store is featuring new beauty brands from Chanel IT Cosmetics Liz Earle Stila This Works and Tom Ford Health services are also available The store has two consultation rooms an in house optician a hearing center and a pharmacy Beauty continues to be one of the most dynamic inspiring and exciting parts of our business and we are very excited to be completely overhauling our beauty experience stated Seb James senior vice president and managing director of Boots UK With 800 million people walking through our doors every year it is no surprise that we are already the market leader in beauty but we want customers to never have any reason to go anywhere else Adding a little glamour some great new service and lots of new brands to our beauty offer represents the first few steps of that journey Boots which has been in Lincoln for 135 years opened its new store across the street from the building it previously occupied We cant wait to tell our customers about the new beauty offer at Boots theres so much to be excited about and we want to bring them on this journey with us said Helen Normoyle marketing director at Boots UK Our 12 month partnership with Glamour which we announced last month will also really help bring this to life through sponsorship of their live beauty festivals in London and Manchester where beauty lovers will get a sneak preview at some of the game changing new brands set to launch in our stores and online Normoyle added New brands that will be coming to Boots include Becca Skyn Iceland Too Cool for School Tony Moly Nude by Nature and Live Be Artists rendering of the beauty section at a new flagship store