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FRI, MAR 22, 2019
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CVS dips its toes into the CBD market. Snapchat makes a Big Pitch. Erectile dysfunction treatment service Roman makes a play for the ladies. Biogen tanked 29 percent Thursday, but the real losers are the nearly 6 million people with Alzheimer’s.
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We’re just two months away from our second Healthy Returns Summit. Join us in New York City on May 21, when we’ll explore some of the topics we dive into here and more on stage with Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky, United Therapeutics CEO Martine Rothblatt and others.
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CVS + CBD = $
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CVS is dipping its toes into the CBD market, starting with selling creams and other topical lotions infused with CBD in eight states. Short for cannabidiol, it’s the non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis. CVS CEO Larry Merlo told Jim Cramer the company will “walk slowly.” That may be slow for CVS, but it shows how fast the CBD market is making it to main street.
-Angelica LaVito
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Snapchat courts Big Pharma ad money
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Snapchat is trying to woo Big Pharma dollars to advertise on its social network. The companies. We saw the slide presentation. Snapchat’s pitch: its platform gives consumers more privacy than rivals Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and, hopefully, more comfort in clicking on drug ads that could indicate an embarrassing health problem, like excessive sweating or HPV.
-Christina Farr
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Humana turns to game theory
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The Trump administration’s proposal to overhaul drug rebates Big Pharma pays pharmacy benefit managers to get their drugs preferential treatment in Medicare plans has the number crunchers at Humana scrambling at how to price their plans for 2020.
Insurers need to file in June, but the rules haven’t even been written yet. So, Humana is trying cover all its bases, using game theory to predict the possibilities.
-Bertha Coombs
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ED start-up tackles menopause
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The start-up behind Roman, the men's health service known for offering discreetly packaged, straight-to-your-door erectile dysfunction medication, launched a new service aimed at treating women, specifically the myriad of symptoms that come with menopause.
Like Roman, the service connects patients to doctors online to offer maximum privacy and convenience. The company tells me the more than 43 million in the U.S. who suffer from menopause symptoms are underserved. That’s quite a target market.
-Berkeley Lovelace Jr.
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It's the middlemen's turn
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The Senate Finance Committee this week said it invited CVS and four other major pharmacy middlemen to testify before Congress about high prescription drug costs on April 3.
The drug price hearing marks the committee’s third this year and will come six weeks after the panel grilled seven major pharmaceutical companies about high drug costs. During that hearing, executives repeatedly argued rebates negotiated between middlemen and manufacturers played a large role in their list prices.
-Berkeley Lovelace Jr.
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Coming Up: Healthy Returns 2019
CNBC presents a unique health care event that brings together top CEOs, investors and technologists to explore the innovations that will drive better outcomes, clinically and financially.
We’ll examine AI and data, M&A and IPOs, the promise of CRISPR and the ethics of genome editing, and the most investable opportunities in both the public and private markets.
Featured Speakers Include:
Edward Ellison, The Permanente Federation
Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson
Scott Gottlieb, U.S. FDA
Marc Harrison, Intermountain Health
Ashish Jha, Harvard Global Health Institute
Vasant Narasimhan, Novartis
Peter Orszag, Lazard
John Rogers, Northwestern University
Jennifer Schneider, Livongo
Andy Slavitt, Town Hall Ventures
More to come
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Healthy Returns
May 21, 2019 New York City
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