Radar on Drug Benefits

✦ The Trump administration is shifting gears with its COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy amid increasing frustration over the slow pace of vaccine distribution, multiple news outlets reported. HHS Secretary Alex Azar told reporters during a press briefing on Jan. 12 that the administration now plans to allocate vaccine doses to states based on how quickly they can administer the shots, rather than their population, according to The Hill. The administration is also pushing states to administer vaccines to anyone aged 65 or over and anyone with an underlying health condition, the news outlet said. However, public health experts who spoke to Politico suggested that the allocation strategy shift won’t fix the problems that have so far beset the vaccine rollout, such as low uptake in underprivileged communities. Read more at https://bit.ly/3oI85cV and https://politi.co/38Eauzx.

✦ In a deal unveiled on Jan. 6, AmerisourceBergen Corp. plans to acquire the majority of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.’s wholesale drug distribution businesses — called Alliance Healthcare — for approximately $6.5 billion. The move will allow Walgreens “to increase its focus on growing and transforming its core retail pharmacy and healthcare businesses, facilitate higher growth investments and accelerate its strategic goals,” while allowing AmeriSourceBergen to expand its presence in Europe, where Alliance Healthcare is one of the largest pharmaceutical wholesalers, the companies said. The two firms also agreed to extend their U.S. strategic partnership through 2029. Read more at https://bit.ly/3nHzQ3K.

Payers shouldn’t write off the idea of value-based pricing for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, even though the ongoing coronavirus pandemic makes it imperative to develop and release those products as quickly as possible, four Tufts Medical Center researchers say.

The researchers, writing in the January edition of Health Affairs, say payers should consider value from both a health system and a societal perspective.

In addition to creating “one of the nation’s largest behavioral health platforms,” Centene Corp. will add another pharmacy-related asset to its portfolio with its recently announced $2.2 billion proposed purchase of Magellan Health, Inc.

The deal, unveiled on Jan. 4, will deliver 2 million PBM members and 16 million medical pharmacy lives to Centene, which already has a variety of internal and external PBM relationships. And while those pharmacy lives are just a slice of the transaction compared with the behavioral health and specialty health assets that Centene will get by purchasing Magellan, they are a key part of the strategic rationale for the deal.

When CMS on Jan. 8 approved Tennessee’s Section 1115 Medicaid waiver — making it the first state to try an “aggregate cap” approach to Medicaid financing — the agency also took the unprecedented step of authorizing Tennessee to set up a “commercial-style” closed drug formulary while still receiving statutory Medicaid drug rebates for covered drugs.

“I think this piece will be particularly controversial and potentially quite ripe for litigation,” says Jocelyn Guyer, a managing director with Manatt Health. “It’s a foundational change that we’ve never seen before in a Medicaid waiver.”