Kroger Health has entered into a new agreement with Express Scripts to expand prescription medication and health service access to Express Scripts customers. This partnership allows the Kroger Family of Pharmacies to immediately start serving Express Scripts' Medicare Part D and Tricare/Department of Defense plan members. The move comes as Kroger continues to strengthen its healthcare presence. The agreement notably increases the reach of Kroger's health services, potentially impacting more than 100 million people in the United States who are under Express Scripts plans, including commercial and Medicaid clients.
Kroger Health is a significant player in the retail healthcare sector, with over 2,200 pharmacies across 35 states and telehealth services through The Little Clinic in nine states. The company's healthcare team, numbering 24,000, delivers a range of services with an emphasis on the integration of food as a key component of health and wellness.
The U.S. government will pay the vaccine maker Moderna $176 million to accelerate development of a pandemic influenza vaccine that could be used to treat bird flu in people, as concern grows about cases in dairy cows across the country. Moderna already has a bird flu vaccine in very early-stage testing that uses the same mRNA technology that allowed rapid development and rollout of vaccines to protect against COVID-19. The new funds from HHS include continued development of the vaccine, including a late-stage trial next year if those early study results are positive.
Scientists remain puzzled as to why some individuals taking popular weight loss and diabetes medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy develop complications with their eyesight, highlighting that we still have a lot to learn about this relatively new class of drugs.
Novo Nordisk on Friday reported strong early-stage results for its once-a-week obesity drug. Before the open, Novo Nordisk stock jumped while Eli Lilly fell. In the phase 1b/2a clinical trial, obese and overweight patients taking 20 milligrams of the amycretin drug saw an average weight reduction of 22% in 36 weeks. Patients taking a placebo experienced a 2% weight gain. Those taking 1.25mg over 20 weeks lost 9.7% of their body weight, with patients on 5mg over 28 weeks seeing a reduction of 16.2%.
State AGs have reached a new opioid settlement worth $7.4 billion with Purdue Pharma and its owners. The settlement does not give Sackler family members immunity from future opioid lawsuits.
A new real-world study published in PLOS Medicine that looked at outcomes of 703,647 patients with COVID-19 seen at 34 US clinics in 2022 and 2023 found that Paxlovid use was correlated with lower rates of hospitalization and death, particularly among older patients.