2017 Annual Meeting Recap

Paul Meyer, Board Chair, kicked off the National CooperativeRx Annual Meeting yesterday by welcoming the audience and introducing our board members. Josh Bindl gave a presentation highlighting National CooperativeRx’s achievements in 2016, acknowledging current PBM industry issues, and providing the Cooperative’s strategies on balancing out a high level of pharmaceutical care with rising costs. Highlights from Josh’s overview:

• The 2017 Annual Meeting welcomed the largest audience in Cooperative history
• Part of the large attendance was due to the Cooperative experiencing its highest level of growth yet in 2016
• National CooperativeRx already has 10 new members committed to signing on in 2017 — beating our number of new members by this date in 2016
• New growth allowed for mid-contract market check negotiations, where the Cooperative will pursue even better pricing with our PBM vendor CVS/caremark
• Independent recommendations from National CooperativeRx staff saved members millions of dollars through the identification of waste and the promotion of programs in 2016
• National CooperativeRx will soon begin the RFP process to review our options in regards to the next Master Contract

Gillian Bell spoke on the rising world of Personalized Medicine, informing the audience of how genetics play a role in drug efficacy. Some patients are already being advised to have their genes tested to determine which medications will work, and which may lead to no benefit or even have a potential for harm. Ramanan Laxminarayan gave an insightful presentation on the complicated issue of antibiotic resistance. He states that new antibiotics are needed, but predicts they will come at a steep price. Along with the need for new antibiotics is the need for better management of current antibiotics — but even that issue is more complicated than it seems. The meeting ended with a panel discussion including Gillian Bell, Wayne Salverda of National CooperativeRx and Ritu Malhotra of Pharmaceutical Strategies Group. The panel members discussed issues such as the introduction of biosimilars to the market, what panelists would do for health care if voted in as president, and what Cooperative members can expect out of National CooperativeRx’s next Master Contract. Some of our survey comments:

• Nice event… Thank you!
• Laxminarayan was a fantastic speaker on an absolutely relevant topic. Thank you for bringing him in.
• Great topics & speakers. I loved attending and learned a lot.
• Outstanding!
• Thanks for an informative morning.

It was a great event, and National CooperativeRx looks forward to hosting it again next year. Thank you for adding to the success of the Cooperative.