CVS to offer discounts on certain medications to its patients
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Health will launch Reduced Rx, a prescription savings program that will offer discounts on certain medications through CVS Health's pharmacy benefits manager, CVS Caremark directly to patients. The program will help patients with high out of pocket costs afford essential medications.
Novo Nordisk will participate in the prescription savings program. Through this program, CVS Health and Novo Nordisk will offer Novolin R, Novolin N and Novolin 70/30 human insulin at a cost of $25 per 10ml vial, which reflects a potential savings of as much as $100 for cash paying patients.
"We developed the Reduced Rx prescription savings program with Novo Nordisk because we both recognized a need and an opportunity to make critical medications more affordable for patients," said Jonathan Roberts, EVP and Chief Operating Officer, CVS Health. "This savings program will leverage CVS Caremark's expertise in providing lower cost prescription drugs and fulfill our company's purpose of helping people on their path to better health."
The Reduced Rx launch follows another affordability announcement made earlier this year by CVS Health. Working with Impax Laboratories, CVS Health announced in January that it has made the authorized generic for Adrenaclick, an epinephrine auto-injector for patients with allergic reactions, available at all CVS Pharmacy locations at the lowest cash price in the market, $109.99 for a two-pack. CVS Health collaborated to create both the generic Adrenaclick offering and the Reduced Rx program in response to consumer need for low cost options.
"This program underscores how important collaboration is to addressing the affordability challenges patients face in certain health plans or who remain uninsured. We all have a role to play and that's why we welcomed the chance to work with CVS Health on this program," said Doug Langa, SVP and head of North America Operations, Novo Nordisk. "We're committed to developing sustainable solutions with customers and will continue to pursue opportunities to ensure that patients have access to insulin that is affordable."
Reduced Rx will allow patients to purchase medications at a reduced cost at any of the more than 67,000 pharmacies in the CVS Caremark retail network, including the more than 9,700 CVS Pharmacy locations throughout the U.S. Patients using the Reduced Rx prescription savings program will need to pay the cost of the medication out of pocket; the program cannot be used with any prescription drug insurance coverage.
"With nearly 10% of the U.S. population living with diabetes, ensuring patients have access to affordable insulin is more important than ever," said Troyen Brennan, M.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, CVS Health. "We're pleased that our Reduced Rx prescription savings program can help assure that effective medications are also affordable."