Tweet This
The deal includes a new retail pharmacy network for Prime effective in 2017 while linking Walgreens with the nation’s fourth-largest PBM . Prime competes with Express Scripts,
"The prescription drug needs of consumers are often changing, and this unique collaboration will help us deliver value, care and service to our patients and the communities we serve," said Walgreens Boots Alliance co-chief operating officer Alex Gourlay in a statement. Walgreens has more than 8,000 stores in the U.S.
The deal seems to signal that Walgreens isn't prepared to spend a lot of money to buy or build a giant pharmacy benefit manager on its own. Should Walgreens later this year complete its acquisition of Rite Aid, it will inherit a small PBM, EnvisionRx, but Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina has said in the past he was open to a "strong commercial agreement" with a PBM.
Inside Obamacare: The Fix For America’s Ailing Health Care System explores the ways the Affordable Care Act will impact your health care.
As part of the deal, Walgreens and Prime will own a “combined specialty and mail services company” the two firms say will help health plan enrollees adhere to their medications and lead to improved health outcomes for patients. Walgreens will be the preferred pharmacy in Prime's drugstore networks effective in 2017, executives said.
Prime Therapeutics was formed almost 30 years ago and has gradually grown to include some of the nation's largest Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies, including Health Care Service Corp., which owns Blue Cross plans in Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Montana.
"With costs rising at unsustainable rates, we must take strong and decisive action to make healthcare more affordable,"Prime Therapeutics chief executive officer Jim DuCharme said.
PBMs negotiate deals on behalf of employers or government health programs like Medicare and Medicaid, helping their clients better coordinate care and manage drug costs through buying drugs in bulk and essentially negotiating better–at times exclusive–deals for lower medicine prices. They’ve taken on a more important role for their clients given the large price tags of new biologic medicines and other pricey prescriptions like Hepatitis C pills made by Gilead Sciences, Abbvie and Merck.
"We're trying to apply the brakes to this runaway freight train of rising drug costs by aligning the cost control expertise of the trusted Blue+Prime model with Walgreens supply chain capabilities and sending a message that we are on board with finding a solution to this issue," DuCharme said.
