CVS Health Corp. will add 35 products to its lists of excluded drugs
in 2017 and no longer cover some treatments for cancer and diabetes, in
an aggressive move to favor lower-priced treatments and target what the
company called “hyperinflation” of some other products.
The drug
benefit manager will remove coverage for Novartis AG’s leukemia
treatment Tasigna, Medivation Inc.’s prostate cancer drug Xtandi, and
Sanofi’s insulin Lantus, expanding the company’s strategy of excluding
expensive products when alternatives are available. The total number of
excluded drugs for 2017 will be 131, spokeswoman Carolyn Castel said
Tuesday.
It’s the first time that brand-name cancer drugs have been taken off CVS’s standard formula.
Cancer has been one area where pharmacy benefit managers have been
reluctant to push exclusions. Yet the rise in prices for pills to treat
forms of the disease, combined with the availability of good
alternatives, drove CVS to remove some brand-name medications for the
first time.
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