Sunday, June 30, 2013

Non-CVS Pharmacy Company Fined For Wrongdoing.

In a shocking press release made public this month, the Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed that the latest target of a pharmacy related investigation was not leading drugstore operator CVS.

"We have concluded an investigation into the diversion of oxycodone through legitimate pharmacies in the state of Florida and onto the streets of cities throughout the country, and have concluded that it in no way involves CVS." said lead field agent Dirk Bradford at a press conference at DEA headquarters this afternoon. "As unbelievable as it may sound, CVS is in no way accused of doing anything wrong at this time."

The investigation uncovered stores that had sold as many as 2,200,000 pills of oxycodone over the course of a year and not a one of them was a CVS. Seriously. The company that has over the years been accused of among other things, bribing state senators, employing fake pharmacists, overcharging both the Medicare system and individual Medicare recipients, as well as letting a customer have an asthma attack in one of their stores because they were a couple dollars short had nothing to do with this scandal.

I'm not kidding you. Six stores lost their DEA license in Florida over this. And a company that is not CVS will pay an 80 million dollar fine.

Walter Brombach, a retail analyst at Goldman Sachs expressed concern the company was losing its competitive edge.

"After being a trailblazer in showing just how far a corporation can go in skirting the law to profitability, these latest developments raise the specter that CVS' competitors may be catching up and developing their own ways of calculating the reward/risk ratio of defying accepted laws and social norms. That being the case I am immediately downgrading my rating on the stock from 'strong buy' to 'hold"

Other analysts were more optimistic, noting that CVS had its own oxycodone scandal in 2012 and this was simply a case of others mimicking the industry leader.

Reached at the company's headquarters in Rhode Island, CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis said "We remain committed to serving our customers and will work with the proper authorities.....wait....no....this isn't us.....no comment."

Saturday, June 22, 2013

This Week's News Headlines. As Fresh As One Of My Five Year Old Blog Posts. Or, I May Be On The World's Longest Acid Trip.

Fans of The Supreme Court and my little blog garden got a taste of my eternal wisdom and foresight this week when they anxiously logged on to their favorite news source and saw this story about the doings of the highest court in the land:

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that brand-name drug makers can be sued for violating the antitrust laws if they make a deal that pays a potential competitor to put off selling a generic version. 
The 5-3 decision is likely to benefit consumers with lower prices. The Federal Trade Commission, which has pursued suits against the drug makers, estimated these so-called “pay for delay” deals cost consumers and health plans $3.5 billion a year.

This is the kind of story that separates my true fans from the pretenders my friends, as those who worship my words knew all about this scam long ago. For the rest of you, I'll bring back The Bullshit Exposure Through Dramatization Players to explain the issue with a repeat performance of their 2007 hit "Can't We All Just Get Along?"

Generic Drugmakers: Oh Big Pharma, can't we just get along? Why, when your patent runs out for a medicine, must we sue each other for years instead of competing in the marketplace? Can't we just play by the rules and both earn a legitimate profit? 
Big Pharma: There, there little guy. You think our lawyers are mean when they sue each other, but really they are doing us both a favor. Yes, you could make a billion dollars selling a generic version of our drug for 70% less than what we charge, but that would involve you actually doing work. When we sue each other, we can settle, and I can pay you three quarters of a billion dollars to do nothing. We both win. 
Generic Drugmakers: But what about the American people, who will continue to have to pay whatever you want to charge for access to this medicine? 
(30 seconds of silence) 
Big Pharma: Here's a big check. 
Generic Drugmakers: You are wise and just Big Pharma.

You read that right (over 5 years ago) Big Pharma has a habit of paying generic drugmakers not to make a product so they can continue to charge the monopolistic prices we all know and loathe. And this week the Supreme Court said they continue to do so at their own peril.

So George Bush's fight against Big Pharma has been won.

You read that right, and I remain as baffled by this as I was the day I first visited the subject. The man who brought us The Iraq war, the one who so skillfully managed the other conflict he started in Afghanistan, the person who gave us Guantanamo and laid the groundwork for the spy state we now live in....took Big pharma to task for overcharging the American people.

Do you think he even knows? Maybe he has no idea and he's gonna be really mad when he finds out.

Or maybe John Roberts has a prescription for Crestor. That's the only other idea I've got. Even my great wisdom has limits it would seem.

Of course I theorized at the time I was on acid, which still might explain a lot actually.

Anyway, I am wise and insightful. Mostly.