Drug Channels News Roundup, April 2025: Amazon Rx Update, Express Scripts’ Spend Trends, Gold Cards, and CMS Acronym Absurdity

Spring has officially arrived at Drug Channels' worldwide headquarters in beautiful downtown Philadelphia. (Photo proof at right.) So, scurry over to this month’s curated crop of noteworthy news:

• Amazon Pharmacy is still coming for retail pharmacy

• Express Scripts revives its long-lost drug trend report

• Prior authorization gold cards: Progress or peril?

Plus, MPPP or not MPPP? That is the question.

P.S. Join nearly 63,000 of your peers who follow me on LinkedIn for daily insights, links to neat stuff, and sharp commentary from the ever-engaged DCI community.

Live from Asembia’s AXS25 Summit: The DCI team is on-site! Swing by booth #1601 at 4 p.m. today for our “Ask Adam Anything” (#AAA) session.

Drug Channels News Roundup, October 2023: CVS & Humira Biosimilars, GLP-1 G2N Bubble, 340B Abuses, Rite Aid's Endgame, Mark Cuban Update, and an Epic Meetup

Zoinks! It's time for a super-sized Halloween roundup of wicked Drug Channels’ tales. This month’s tricks and treats:

• Spooky! CVS Health frightens all but one Humira biosimilar maker away from its formulary.

• Creepy! The gross-to-net bubble for anti-obesity GLP-1 drugs walks among us.

• Grotesque! Penn Medicine gorges on the 340B program.

• Vampiric! Rite Aid’s many management missteps finally put a stake in the company’s heart.

• Eerie! Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company conjures a partnership with Alto Pharmacy.

Plus, an epic meetup with two of my favorite drug channel experts.

P.S. For my daily haunting, join the zombie horde who shamble after me on LinkedIn. You can also find my ghostly rantings at @DrugChannels on Twitter/X. (I recommend LinkedIn for maximium scares. Alas, I’m still spooked by Threads.)

The Consolidated Drug Channel and Cash-Pay Drugs: My Podcast with a16z's Julie Yoo

I recently joined Julie Yoo on Bio Eats World, a podcast from legendary venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known as "a16z"). Julie is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

We chatted about the current state of the U.S. drug channel, the roles and controversies around pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), GoodRx, Mark Cuban’s cost-plus pharmacy, the 340B Drug Pricing Program, and much more. I also shared some thoughts on opportunities for entrepreneurs in such a consolidated space. The episode is about 36 minutes long.

The podcast audio is embedded below, along with links to the episode on major podcast platforms.

Enjoy!

P.S. Let me know if you’d like to see more audio/podcast content on Drug Channels.

Drug Channels News Roundup, July 2022: CVS vs. NACDS, ICER Impact, Biosimilar Boom, Deductible Doubts, and Alto Pharmacy (and me)

Cut through the steamy summer haze with our refreshing selection of articles and insights. In this issue:

• CVS disassociates itself from its chain pharmacy association

• Payers are paying attention to ICER

• Benefits of the biosimilar boom

• A fantastic takedown of health insurance deductibles

Plus, I join the Advisory Board of Alto Pharmacy.

P.S. Join my nearly 30,000 (!) LinkedIn followers for daily links to neat stuff. You can also find my daily posts at @DrugChannels on Twitter, where I have more than 14,700 followers.

Join me next week for my new live video webinar, Specialty Drugs Update: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook, on July 29, 2022, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET. I’ll cover market trends, payer strategies, channel developments, key trends that will help you plan for the future, and more. Click here for details and registration info.

The Promise and Limits of Digital Pharmacies

Does pharmacy need to be disrupted?

Venture capitalists clearly think so, judging by the billions they have put behind technology-enabled digital pharmacies. Below, you’ll find our list of 14 leading contenders along with funding levels. These companies have not gained significant pharmacy industry market share, but their revenue growth rates are impressive.

Alas, many of these digital pharmacies seem to have misdiagnosed their relative advantage versus today's pharmacies. 

That’s why I believe that digital pharmacies’ biggest impact will come from forcing the industry incumbents to improve their businesses and approach to patients. Pharmacies and PBMs should absorb the technologies and consumer-oriented mindsets of the start-ups.

Digital pharmacies more intriguing disruption comes from combining prescribing and dispensing. But this novel idea seems to have limited applicability to the broader prescription market.   

Read on and let me know what you think.