US drug benefit manager cuts coverage for 35 products in exclusion expansion
The excluded drugs list includes those that have had "hyperinflationary" price increases
New York
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 favour 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 leukaemia 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 on Tuesday. It's the first time that brand-name cancer drugs have been taken off CVS's standard formulary, Ms Castel said.
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