A Nov. 27 Washington Post op-ed by the paper’s own Robert Gebelhoff blames PBMs for America’s “crumbling” pharmacy industry amid recent bankruptcies, proposed mergers, and store closures at the big chains. What he calls the consolidation of drug distribution grants “enormous power to a few big players that have mangled the industry in the pursuit of profit.” Lamenting the interminable position that independents occupy in this war of attrition, Gebelhoff writes that, for pharmacies like NCPA’s members, “profitability is now near-impossible because of the preposterous way the United States distributes pharmaceutical drugs,” thanks in large part to the greedy middlemen whose bloodlust for bucks puts an entire industry — not to mention patients — at risk of collapse. His set-piece? A brief but heart wrenching story about Canby Drug and Gifts in Minnesota, which does a good business, but is always just one step ahead of insolvency. Quoting its owner, Mark Whittier, who said, “I’m one bad contract from closing,” Gebelhoff notes that independents like Canby Drugs are lifelines for patients, many of whom are on Medicaid or utilize the state insurance program. They’re the ones, in the end, who suffer most when the PBM fat cats decide to take another cut.
NCPA
