Latest news with #Caremark
Forbes
7 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
CVS Sues Arkansas Over Law Banning PBM Ownership Of Pharmacies
CVS Health Thursday sued Arkansas, trying to thwart a law the healthcare company said would lead to ... More the closure of all 23 CVS drugstores in the state, the company said May 29, 2025. In this photo, a sign marks the location of a new CVS pharmacy May 5, 2004 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by) CVS Health Thursday sued the state of Arkansas, trying to thwart a law the healthcare company said would lead to the closure of all 23 CVS drugstores in the state. At issue is legislation known as Act 624 that was signed into law last month by Republican Gov, Sarah Huckabee Sanders that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from owning and operating pharmacies. The law would be a first for a state in the U.S. and take aim at the rapidly growing business model of vertical integration that involves ownership of health insurers and medical care providers by the same company. CVS, the nation's largest retail pharmacy operator, also owns Caremark, one of the nation's largest managers of pharmacy benefits for employers, private insurers and government health insurance programs. CVS also owns Aetna, the nation's third largest health insurance company with more than 27 million health plan subscribers. 'We've filed a lawsuit to block Act 624, a harmful law that will shut down 23 CVS Pharmacy locations, eliminate hundreds of jobs, and drive-up costs for Arkansans,' CVS said in a statement Thursday evening. 'This unconstitutional law puts local politics ahead of patients, restricting their access to life-saving medications and undermining fair competition.' Gov. Huckabee's office couldn't be reached Thursday evening for comment. Huckabee, however, earlier this year called the law necessary to curb what she has called abuse business practices by PBMs. 'These massive corporations are attacking our state because we will be the first in the country to hold them accountable for their anticompetitive actions,' she said. But CVS Thursday said the legislation Huckabee signed into law will hurt patients and cut access to medical care, particularly in a rural state like Arkansas. 'Arkansas lawmakers crafted the law to exclude CVS Health's pharmacy operations while protecting in-state pharmacy businesses, which often charge higher prices," CVS said. 'There is no way around the fact that Act 624 will limit patients' options and increase the cost of their medicines.' CVS said the law, violates the U.S. Constitution's Dormant Commerce Clause, which 'prevents states from discriminating against or unfairly burdening out-of-state business.' 'Act 624 also is unlawful because it violates Equal Protection rights and is preempted by federal law,' CVS said. 'We have a right and responsibility to challenge this harmful policy to protect patient care and fair competition.'
CNBC
22-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
We're adding to our position in this out-of-favor, high-quality drugmaker stock
We are buying 10 shares of Eli Lilly at roughly $715. Following the trade, Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust will own 125 shares of LLY, increasing its weighting to 2.65% from about 2.45%. Since the start of May, Eli Lilly shares have fallen roughly 20% on concerns about possible tariffs on overseas manufacturing, an executive order targeting lower drug prices, and worries that Novo Nordisk was starting a GLP-1 pricing war after it announced an agreement with CVS Health's Caremark to make Wegovy the preferred GLP-1 weight loss medication on its formulary. Eli Lilly, and other health-care stocks, have also fallen behind the rest of the market due to a rotation back into more economically sensitive names after the United States and China mutually agreed to reduce tariffs for 90 days. We are mindful of these risks to pharmaceutical companies. Still, we would not be surprised to see the industry work with the Trump administration to find a compromise that is suitable for all parties. And with Eli Lilly shares trading at a 52-week low and only 24 times its estimated 2026 earnings per share, a lot of these headwinds have already been priced in. As for competition, patients should continue to prefer Zepbound because of its superiority over Wegovy. At Eli Lilly's current price of about $715 per share, the stock has entirely erased a 14% move in mid-April when the company announced its daily obesity pill was successful in a late stage trial for Type 2 diabetes with no safety and tolerability concerns. The positive data had significant implications for the GLP-1 market, setting up Lilly to release a medication that offers Wegovy-like efficacy to patients who suffer from needle fear. Oral GLP-1 medications are easier to scale in manufacturing and offer greater convenience for shipping and storage compared to injectable versions. Come next year, the company will have the best injectable and oral GLP-1 medications on the market. Combined with its leading manufacturing footprint, we expect Eli Lilly will continue to gain share in the fast-growing GLP-1 market. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long LLY. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pharma Stock Roundup: NVO & JAZZ's Q1 Results, AZN's Pipeline Update
This week Novo Nordisk NVO and Jazz Pharmaceuticals JAZZ reported their first-quarter results. AstraZeneca's AZN late-stage asthma study on inhaled triple-combination therapy, Breztri, met its key goals. Here's a recap of the week's most important stories. Novo Nordisk missed estimates for sales while earnings were in line. Revenues rose 18% at a constant exchange rate (CER), driven mainly by its GLP-1 products. Its GLP-1 sales increased 11% at CER. Total Diabetes care rose 8% and Obesity care sales increased 65% at CER. Sales of the diabetes drug Ozempic (semaglutide) rose 15%, while obesity injection Wegovy (semaglutide) rose 83% at CER. Rare disease segment sales rose 3%. Novo Nordisk also lowered its sales and operating profit outlook for the year due to lower-than-expected growth of its GLP-1 products due to competition from compounded versions of Wegovy. In 2025, Novo Nordisk expects sales to rise 13-21% at CER versus the prior expectation of 16-24%. Operating profit growth is expected to increase in the range of 16-24% at CER versus the prior expectation of 19-27%. Despite lower-than-expected first-quarter revenues and a guidance cut for 2025, NVO stock price rose post its earnings release. This is because Novo Nordisk said on the first-quarter call that it expects sales of Wegovy to improve going forward. The FDA has removed NVO's semaglutide medicines from its shortage list and has enforced those compounded versions be taken off the market by the end of the month. This should lead to a decline in compounded GLP-1 use, which can help Wegovy sales to rebound in the second half. Moreover, the company is also working to improve access for Wegovy such as through its direct-to-patient program, NovoCare Pharmacy as well its CVS deal. CVS has selected Wegovy as its preferred weight loss drug for its Caremark customers, excluding rival Lilly's obesity drug, Zepbound. Novo Nordisk also announced that it has filed regulatory applications seeking approval for the oral version of Wegovy (25mg) for the treatment of obesity. Novo Nordisk is the first company to seek approval for an oral GLP-1 drug for treating obesity. Jazz missed estimates for both earnings and sales. Total revenues of $897.8 million declined 0.5% year over year while earnings of $1.68 per share declined 36%. Sales of Jazz's neuroscience products rose 4% to $605.2 million while oncology product sales declined 11% to $229.4 million. In the neuroscience franchise, Xywav recorded sales of $344.8 million, up 9% year over year. Sales of Epidiolex/Epidyolex rose 10% to $217.7 million. In the oncology franchise, Rylaze/Enrylaze posted sales of $94.2 million, which fell 8% year over year, while Zepzelca recorded sales worth $63 million, down 16%. Vyxeos generated sales of $29.5 million, down 8%. While Jazz reiterated its total sales guidance, it cut its earnings outlook for 2025 to account for the acquisition of clinical-stage biotech, Chimerix, which closed last month. Total revenues are expected to be in the range of $4.15-$4.40 billion. Adjusted EPS guidance was lowered from a range of $22.50-$24.00 to $4.00-$5.60per share. AstraZeneca's two-phase III studies evaluating its inhaled triple-combination therapy, Breztri Aerosphere in patients with uncontrolled asthma met all primary endpoints. Breztri Aerosphere is a fixed dose combination of budesonide, glycopyrronium and formoterol fumarate. In the KALOS and LOGOS studies, Breztri led to a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in lung function compared with dual-combination inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting beta2-agonist (ICS/LABA) medicines. Data from these phase III studies will be shared with regulatory authorities. Breztri is presently approved to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in several countries including the United States and EU. The European Commission granted marketing authorization to AstraZeneca's BTK inhibitor, Calquence, as a combination treatment, for first-line mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a rare and typically aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The approval was based on data from the ECHO phase III study. Calquence in combination with bendamustine and rituximab is already approved in the United States and several other countries for previously untreated MCL based on the ECHO data. Novo Nordisk and AstraZeneca have a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) each, while Jazz carries a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The NYSE ARCA Pharmaceutical Index has declined 3.2% in the past five trading sessions. Large Cap Pharmaceuticals Industry 5YR % Return Here's how the eight major stocks performed in the previous five trading sessions. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research In the last five trading sessions, J&J rose the most (1.6%) while Merck declined the most (10.8%). In the past six months, AbbVie rose the most (8.4%) while Novo Nordisk declined the most (39.8%). (See the last pharma stock roundup here: J&J's Q1 Results, PFE's Obesity Setback) Watch this space for regular pipeline and regulatory updates next week. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC (JAZZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNBC
07-05-2025
- Health
- CNBC
Healthy Returns: Novo Nordisk's Wegovy deal with CVS won't derail Eli Lilly's obesity market dominance
A combination image shows an injection pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly's weight loss drug, and boxes of Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk. A version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Healthy Returns newsletter, which brings the latest health-care news straight to your inbox. Subscribe here to receive future editions. Despite last week's investor jitters, Eli Lilly is far from losing its strong grip on the booming weight loss market. Here's a recap of what sparked the panic on Thursday if you missed it: CVS Health 's pharmacy benefit manager Caremark said it will prioritize Novo Nordisk 's Wegovy on its standard formularies on July 1, making that weekly injection the preferred GLP-1 drug for obesity. As part of the move, Caremark will also drop Eli Lilly's weight loss drug Zepbound from those formularies, which represent tens of millions of patients. Caremark negotiated an undisclosed lower net price for Wegovy over Zepbound on its standard formularies, offering savings on Novo Nordisk's drug to clients that opt into those plans. But employers and unions will ultimately determine how much of those savings on Wegovy get shared with members, CVS said. Wegovy's list price before insurance is $1,349 for a month's supply, while Zepbound's is $1,086. That decision by one of the nation's largest PBMs triggered fears of a price war in the weight loss drug market and concerns that Zepbound's sales momentum could stall. Shares of Eli Lilly plunged 11% on Thursday. But several Wall Street analysts said the selloff was overblown. "In our view, the Novo/CVS deal does not represent the beginning of an obesity pricing war between Lilly & Novo," BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman said in a note on Thursday. He added that in discussions with the companies, both Lilly and Novo emphasized they want to expand patient access – not undercut each other on price. That may be reassuring to investors worried that a price war could hurt profit margins. But the high list price of those weight loss drugs may remain a major barrier for many patients, particularly those whose health plans don't cover the medications. Eli Lilly told the firm it is not interested in exclusive "one-of-one" deals with PBMs, while Novo Nordisk said CVS approached the drugmaker about the Wegovy agreement, according to Seigerman. On an earnings call on Thursday, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said the company has been trying to move away from setting high list prices and paying bigger rebates to PBMs for preferential coverage. Instead, Eli Lilly is trying to set list prices closer to what it expects the plans to pay for its drugs. "We have been very vocal about trying to move away from that," Ricks said, referring to deep PBM rebates. He added that Zepbound is still growing market share. Seigerman agreed, saying that Eli Lilly is "continuing to perform where it matters." Zepbound and the company's diabetes drug Mounjaro now make up over half of U.S. GLP-1 prescriptions, outpacing the combined 46% share of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and its diabetes treatment Ozempic, according to Seigerman. That "market-share traction clearly demonstrates that physicians and patients prefer Zepbound" over Wegovy, Bernstein analyst Courtney Breen wrote in a separate note on Thursday. It's unclear how much the CVS formulary change will appeal to employers, especially given that Zepbound is known to be more effective at promoting weight loss than Wegovy. Some patients on the standard formularies may also try to stay on their current Zepbound prescriptions by requesting exemptions, JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott said in a Thursday note. Eli Lilly's Ricks also said CVS' move mainly affects smaller employers, who are more likely to stick with Caremark's standard formularies. Larger companies covering more patients often use customized formularies, meaning they can still decide to include Zepbound. Regardless, the CVS-Wegovy deal overshadowed an overall strong quarter for Eli Lilly. The company's first-quarter revenue and earnings topped estimates on skyrocketing demand for Zepbound and Mounjaro, both of which raked in billions of dollars in sales for the period. We'll continue to track Eli Lilly's performance in the weight loss drug market, so stay tuned! Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at Health-care marketplace Zocdoc has launched an artificial intelligence phone assistant that can help patients schedule appointments using conversational language. ZocDoc, founded in 2007, helps connect patients to in-network doctors and book appointments for both in person and virtual care. The company's new AI assistant, called Zo, can handle "unlimited" inbound calls at any hour of the day, eliminating hold times, ZocDoc said in a release. The company said Zo can save staffers time and improve patients' experiences, which can ultimately encourage them to seek out the care they need. The assistant also serves as a major step toward what the company called its goal of aiding scheduling "everywhere patients are seeking care." "What's most exciting about Zo is that it is powered by nearly two decades of Zocdoc's expertise in facilitating patient-provider interactions, understanding complex healthcare scheduling logic, and integrating with a broad base of [electronic health records]," Zocdoc CEO Oliver Kharraz said in a statement. Patients can ask Zo questions like, "Do you take my insurance?," or "Do you have any offices near the West Village?," according to a pre-recorded demo. Health-care organizations can implement Zo without any upfront fees, long-term costs or commitments, and they don't have to be Zocdoc Marketplace customers, the company said. Providers can try out the assistant for $2 per booked appointment, but organizations that want to roll it out on a larger scale can access discounted pricing. Zocdoc said early adopters of Zo have been able to resolve up to 70% of all scheduling calls without staff intervention. The average call lasts around two minutes and 30 seconds. While appointment management is Zo's first use case, Zocdoc said it's exploring other applications for the assistant, including prescription refills, messaging and outbound calls like appointment reminders or last-minute openings. Read the full announcement here. Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What is CVS? 'We are ... working through that very question'
CVS Health (CVS) is one of the largest healthcare companies in the country, boasting a vertically integrated business that raked in more than $124 billion in revenues last year. But not all parts of its business are equal. The front-end of its CVS retail pharmacies — the brand it is best known for — has been struggling for years, just like its peers in the sector. The pharmacy benefit manager Caremark is the target of political pressure. The Aetna insurance plans have had mixed success over the years. And questions remain about CVS's ability to succeed in the health provider space with its 2023 acquisition of Oak Street. After former CEO Karen Lynch left late last year and the company began a strategic review to potentially break up certain units, new CEO David Joyner is faced with answering the question: What, exactly, is CVS? Is it a retail pharmacy giant, an insurance giant, or does it continue to be, like UnitedHealth Group, an awkward mix of vertically integrated parts that, thanks to government rules and regulations, can never totally sync their operations? "We are, as a management team, working through that very question," Joyner told Yahoo Finance in an interview this week. But it doesn't appear the company is ready to shed any of its parts, as had been reported late last year. "I would say that the overarching theme is, I want to become America's most trusted healthcare company. And to do that, I do think we have to be in both the provider business, which is in the pharmacy and in the clinic business, and I also think we need to be able to manage the risk, which is part of what Aetna and Caremark brings to the table," Joyner said. "I would expect, by the year-end, we will have a much better and more organized story to tell," he added. One major move the company made this week was to address the high cost of popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. CVS chose Novo Nordisk's (NVO) Wegovy as the preferred drug on its formulary and excluded Eli Lilly's (LLY) Zepbound on the list. In response, Eli Lilly's CEO told Yahoo Finance he wasn't interested in exclusive deals and that he felt confident in the access points the company has created, including the online prescription options connected through LillyDirect. In fact, CEO David Ricks said, the new prescriptions being filled for vials rather than injectables from LillyDirect equaled more than the total of new prescriptions for Wegovy. "I think we've really found an interesting part of the market here," Ricks said, adding that he hopes there will eventually be more insurance coverage for weight-loss drugs. When asked about that idea, Joyner told Yahoo Finance he agrees there is a case to be made for online platforms when insurance doesn't cover the products. "I do agree with what Dave Ricks has said. I do think that in those hair-loss products, ED [erectile dysfunction] products, all these other categories which generally are not covered by plan sponsors, there ... are multiple ways to access it," Joyner said. His own experience, though, informs Joyner after three decades that customers value in-person store experiences. "While it has always been a cost-effective distribution point, it has not been the preference of the consumer and even during COVID, [when] people were not leaving their homes, we should have seen this massive spike in home delivery. We still didn't get anywhere near what the optimal rates were," Joyner said. Joyner added that over time, it's possible that digital and home delivery numbers grow. CVS also announced this week it was leaving the Affordable Care Act marketplace, for the second time. Joyner said its Aetna insurance plans are unprofitable and not worth the trouble. If they did decide to reenter the exchange, most states mandate a five-year waiting period. "So, this is why this has been ... such an important decision for us, about whether or not we could actually find our way to profitability before five years, or should we exit. So that tells you the calculus that we were looking at in terms of this market," Joyner said. He added that there is likely to be more volatility in the ACA space as questions swirl around the future of government-funded enhanced subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year, barring new legislation, and how that impacts the rate of plan sign-ups in coming years. Read more: What is a health savings account (HSA)? "I think the ACA business is a viable product as long as it's funded and supported by the government. I do think it's a business that ... can work. Unfortunately, the way we built our product and the way that our network was put together, and the way in which — we're just small, we're subscale, and we have not prioritized that segment of our business," Joyner said. The company has been caught in what Joyner termed a "bad underwriting cycle" with a confluence of factors that include the ways in which marketplace plans are sold, how brokers are paid, and other companies' exits that resulted in "a really bad mix in the markets that we are serving." Because it's a government-subsidized product, it doesn't follow data cycles the way normal insurance products do, giving the company insight and predictability for certain markets. Joyner said the company is intently focused on its strategic turnaround and felt like the marketplace just wasn't a priority. "It's not an indictment on the product (or) the market. It's basically our inability to effectively compete," he said. "I just didn't think I had enough time, and enough money, quite frankly, to get us to a path to where ... it worked for us." Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, care services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. That includes GLP-1s, of course. Follow Anjalee as AnjKhem on social media platforms X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @AnjKhem. Sign in to access your portfolio
