The road less traveled to low-cost drugs

Last week, Blue Shield of California announced the end of a 15-year partnership with CVS Health’s pharmacy benefits manager Caremark, in favor of new partnerships to provide access to affordable prescription drugs. For now, Blue Shield is betting on a predicted $500M in annual savings by switching to Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Company (MCCPDC) for low-cost meds through retail pharmacies and Amazon Pharmacy for at-home delivery. This move away from the traditional PBM relationship raises big questions about what’s next for the PBM industry, which has been in the hot seat recently over high drug prices. Both MCCPDC and Amazon Pharmacy have doubled down on innovating for affordability in 2023, and now the market is watching to see if they deliver at the scale demanded by large payers. We’ll be tracking how this partnership sets the stage for channel disruption between payers and PBMs—as well as the impacts and savings for consumers.

New speakers have been added to the lineup for Rock Health Summit 2023!

Join us on September 27 to hear from Natasha Mascarenhas (The Information), Ricky Y. Choi, (Samsung Electronics), and Julie Yoo (Andreessen Horowitz), in addition to Bertha Coombs (CNBC), Emily Melton (Threshold Ventures), Erin Brodwin (Axios), and Othman Laraki (Color).

In-person tickets will sell out soon, so register today to join us in San Francisco! 

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