News Update: August 2007

I’m going to take a break from blogging until after Labor Day. In the meantime, here are a few stories that you may have missed this month. Don't worry -- I’ll be back in September!

1) Pharmacy fights back
The Average Manufacturer Price (AMP) war has now moved to Congress, where multiple bills benefiting retail pharmacy have been introduced. Here are the major bills and their key provisions, which I’ll discuss further in upcoming posts:

• S.1951: Fair Medicaid Drug Payment Act of 2007 – This bill changes the AMP formula and redefines retail class of trade, among other things.


• S.1954: Pharmacy Access Improvement Act of 2007 – Many items are stuffed into this bill, including prompt payment requirements for drug plans and limits on Part D co-branding.


• H.R. 3140: Saving Our Community Pharmacies Act of 2007 – This bill would replace AMP with a survey-based metric called “Retail Acquisition Cost.”

BTW, you will not be surprised to find that emails from pharmacists about Heretical Questions about the AMP War have been generally negative. Oh well. I still maintain that an ounce of data is worth a pound of opinions.

2) Drug Imports: Coming Soon?
In early August, I speculated that drug importation may be inevitable within the next few years. The lawyers over at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara provide a useful legal analysis of HR 3161, the Agriculture bill that included controversial drug importation language. Check out House Passes FDA Appropriations Bill With Drug Importation Provision, which concludes that “…the House and Senate are headed for a showdown over the issue as a part of FDA appropriations legislation.”

3) Cracking the Top 100
Drug Channels is now #69 on the Healthcare 100 list of top blogs on health and medicine. (There are actually 390 blogs on the list, so it's a good page to bookmark.) Thanks for helping to make Drug Channels such a success!

I also want to give a special shout-out to Al Godley of Edge Dynamics, who was named to the PharmaVOICE 100 list of industry influencers. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition, Al!

4) Phun Phact about Philly
Your friendly neighborhood pharmacy supply chain blogger is proud to live in the second "bloggiest" city in the US. Who knew?