Although this wasn’t quite the platform in which we imagined celebrating another successful year, National CooperativeRx hosted its 2020 Annual Meeting via webinar last week. With a record turnout of 280 attendees, we reviewed the Cooperative’s impressive 2019 performance and offered two informative keynote presentations. All that was missing were the delicious buffets and networking opportunities!
Larry Richardson, our Board Chair, kicked off the morning by introducing our Board members, presenting important Cooperative financials and announcing his retirement.
Josh Bindl, CEO, followed by calling out high prescription drug prices and emphasizing our membership growth and negative trend results. Josh also discussed National CooperativeRx’s 2020 initiatives, such as high-dollar specialty review, additional drug exclusions and our market check for improved 2021 pricing. He concluded by highlighting public policy issues, the impact of copay cards on our members and an update on the CVS Health Real-Time Benefits program.
Our first keynote was a panel of National CooperativeRx pharmacists, including Wayne Salverda, R.Ph., Jocelyn Kerl, PharmD., BCPS and Erica Guetzlaff, PharmD. With Josh Bindl as the moderator, each shared their perspective on important industry topics like prescription drug rebates, biosimilars and prescription drug importation.
Following our clinical team was Dr. Jane Barlow from Real Endpoints, who lectured on the changing market and its impact on specialty drug utilization and spend, as well as financing solutions for current and future gene therapy approvals.
We have already received a lot of positive feedback from the event:
- Always appreciate the opportunity for the education on cutting-edge trends that this Annual Meeting provides.
- Glad to be a member!
- It was excellent in format, materials and quality of speakers…well done!
- Excellent use of the technology to present the information.
Thank you for making our first virtual Annual Meeting successful and we look forward to seeing you next year, hopefully in person!
