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Upcoming Events featuring
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National CooperativeRx is a not-for-profit coalition founded and owned by plan sponsors to achieve higher value prescription benefits through volume purchasing, clinical solutions, actionable data and unparalleled customer service. For your sales and marketing needs, please contact us at 866-679-9479, extension 223
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Specialty Drug Trend
The specialty market is expected to grow to nearly $120B in the next 3 years, possibly 1/3 of total pharmacy spend in the US.
Research and development continue to provide more effective treatments, but often with additional costs. National CooperativeRx is succeeding in helping members better manage their pharmaceutical investments. While specialty drugs represented about 20% of the industry's pharmacy benefit costs in 2012, the trend for National CooperativeRx members was notably less.
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Specialty Drug Trend
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% of Specialty Drug Spend
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Over-all Trend
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National CooperativeRx
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10.5%
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18.6%
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-0.9%
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CVS Caremark**
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18.1%
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19.9%
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0.1%
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Express-Scripts/Medco^
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18.4%
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24.5%
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2.7%
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Catamaran^^
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21.0%
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20.0%
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2.6%
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**CVS Caremark Insights 2013, 2012 Annual Report
^Express-Scripts/Medco Annual Trend Report
^^Catamaran Annual Report
The National CooperativeRx business model encourages plan sponsor engagement and active management of pharmaceutical investments. The results are self-evident with proven outcomes. In addition to the cooperative's specialty trend, our aggregate 7 year trend is also down -.33%, meaning it costs less each year to insure our participants.
To receive a free copy of Q4/Q1 Specialty Pipeline Drugs to Watch (a publication developed to keep you informed about drugs in the Specialty Pharmacy Pipeline), contact Chris Ralston at 608-204-7723.
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Fox News. A recently released study looked at sets of identical twins, in which one twin had smoked for at least 5 years longer than the other twin. Judges were able to guess which twin was the smoker 57% of the time. Although the smokers showed more wrinkles in the lower half of the face, the differences were minimal in most cases. (10/30) Full Story
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CNN. Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer, responsible for 25% of all cancer deaths. Lung cancer victims also face a burden of shame that other cancer victims don't face- even though 60% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers. Unfortunately, the stigma associated with lung cancer has translated to a massive inequality in research funding. (Sequist, 10/30) Full Story
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HealthDay. Some people's immune systems manage to hold HIV at bay without any treatment. Researchers who created the first map of human resistance to HIV say their achievement could lead to improved treatments for the virus, which causes AIDS. (Preidt, 10/31) Full Story
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Time. A recently published study states that compounds derived from marijuana can kill cancerous cells in patients with leukemia. In similar research in 2012, it was found that CBD - a non-psychoactive chemical compound found in cannabis - can stop metastasis in some kinds of aggressive cancer. (Dockterman, 10/28) Full Story
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The Washington Post. President Obama has recently lost credibility over his statement "If you like the health insurance you have, you can keep it." In reality, if your current health insurance doesn't meet the ACA guidelines and it isn't grandfathered in, your plan is destined to change. This article explores the issue. (Tumulty, 10/30) Full Story
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Kaiser Health News. California, Connecticut, Kentucky, New York, Rhode Island and Washington are all states running their own health insurance exchanges, and they have all exceeded federal enrollment targets. Meanwhile, the federal exchange web site continues to attract criticism. This article reviews the problems the federal exchange site is encountering. (Marshall, 10/31) Full Story
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