Two more manufacturers have announced contract pharmacy restrictions (CPRs) on Community Health Centers and a third has tightened them:
· Alkermes – who makes Vivitrol, an SUD treatment drug that CHCs often prescribe – announced CPRs that will go into effect on July 22. Due to varying payor rules about whether Vivitrol must be dispensed by a regular pharmacy or contract pharmacy, it will soon be impossible for most CHCs to obtain all their Vivitrol at the 340B price.
· Sobi announced CPRs effective July 1, but they should have little impact on CHCs.
· Effective July 1, Bristol Meyers Squibb will require CHCs with a single, designated contract pharmacy site to report data to ESP on that site. This data must be reported within 14 days of the drug being dispensed and include 16 elements for each claim. CHC experts say that meeting these requirements will be an extremely heavy lift, and possibly impossible.
· Sanofi’s policy of treating free-standing CHC-owned pharmacies like contract pharmacies appears to have been adopted by Alkermes, Bausch & Lomb, and Sobi. More information will be forthcoming, but we’re told that health centers should prepare for most of their free-standing pharmacies to lose access to 340B-priced Sanofi, Bausch & Lomb, and Sobi drugs starting July 1, and Alkermes drugs starting July 22.