Well…. the FTC & Justice has remain true to their previous favoritism to PBM’s and mail order. Back when Merck bought PAID.. there was suppose to be a “firewall” between the two.. and after violation of that firewall time and time again… they just spun it off as MEDCO.. We now have the same situation between CVS and Caremark… violation after violation of the firewall that was suppose to be between the two.
Back in the 80’… up in the New England area…. there was a PBM that came a callin with a “low ball contract” and a large number of regional chains and indys turned it down… as I remember… Justice got involved and threatened to take everyone to task .. claiming that all of these pharmacies could not have independently decided to not accept this contract .. it had to involve COLLUSION … and that Justice was going to charge they with RICO and price collusion… if they didn’t sign the contract… and you can guess what happened… many signed the contract…
There are now a number of law suits out there down against this merger – NACDS, NCPA & others… as well as at least five AG’s.. with other reportedly considering the same. What is going to happen if this merger does come to pass… and the same – or worse – contract is offered to community pharmacy… that was offered Walgreens. If one or more of the majors and many of the minor players in the community pharmacy marketplace decides to no longer play… could Justice get back into the game and force many/most pharmacies to sign the contract or risk being drug thru the courts by the FEDS? To many smaller indys/regionals… could it be a death by a thousand cuts?
Filed under: General dumb-ass problems
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