Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and invigorating because that oh-so familiar routine of online meetings, phone calls, and deadlines has predictably returned. But what can you do? The world, such as it is, continues to spin. So time to give it a nudge in a better direction with a cup or two of stimulation. Our choice today is butter pecan. Please feel free to join us. Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest to help you get started on your journey today. Best of luck, and do keep in touch. …
Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the country, overcharged U.S. Postal Service employees by a whopping $45 million for their prescription drugs during a recent five-year period, STAT reports, citing a federal audit. The findings are likely to intensify scrutiny of the controversial role played by PBMs in the opaque pharmaceutical pricing system. The report, which was released in March but received little if any public attention, examined drug spending between 2016 and 2021 within the health plan that covers more than 200,000 unionized mail carriers and post office workers, as well as retirees.
The head of UNAIDS maintained that Gilead could bring the AIDS pandemic toward an end if the company opens up access to its game-changing new HIV drug, Agence France Presse reports. The head of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, urged Gilead to “make history” by allowing generic manufacturing of Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injectable antiretroviral medication used to treat HIV patients. She urged Gilead to open up Lenacapavir to the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool international organization so that cheaper generic versions could be sold under licenses in low- and middle-income nations.
