Friday, February 27, 2026

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Much has happened recently at the federal level regarding drug pricing, PBMs, and other initiatives related to pharmacy. Wednesday evening, TPA members had the opportunity to hear directly from John M. Coster, Ph.D., R.Ph., former head of the federal Medicaid Pharmacy Program and former Senior Advisor to the Medicare Drug Rebate and Negotiation Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Coster presented a one-hour virtual town hall meeting to provide an update on federal legislation and regulation that affects pharmacy practice relating to Medicare Part B, Medicare Part D and Medicaid.

Members who missed the live town hall event may log in to view a recording of the presentation online. In addition, NCPA recently released a one-pager on recent federal PBM reforms.

Review the list of awards requirements and submit the online nomination form no later than March 23, 2026. You may also view a list of 2025 award winners and all past honorees online.

Pharmacists play a critical role in patient care by identifying opportunities to safely reduce or discontinue medications. This course explores key patient characteristics and high-risk medication classes, introduces a step-by-step deprescribing process, and provides practical communication strategies to effectively engage both patients and providers in deprescribing interventions. Join us for a live CE webinar Thursday, March 12, to learn more. The webinar will also be available on demand following the event if your schedule does not allow for live viewing.

STATE NEWS

About five months after formally being acquired by Sycamore Partners, Walgreens is laying off hundreds of employees. In Texas, 159 employees are impacted, according to a notice the company filed with the state dated Feb. 12. The effective layoff date is June 1 and marks the closure of the company’s distribution center in Houston. Additionally, 469 employees are impacted in Illinois at the company’s headquarters.

Retail Dive (February 20, 2026) James, Dani

Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Aid Access GmbH, Aid Access B.V. (collectively “Aid Access”), Remy Coeytaux, and Rebecca Gomperts, who operate an international abortion-by-mail enterprise that illegally ships abortion-inducing drugs into Texas in open defiance of state law. Aid Access openly advertises that it “provide[s] abortion services to all 50 U.S. states including Texas” and ships abortion-inducing drugs. The organization further claims it has facilitated more than 200,000 abortions nationwide since 2018.

Attorney General of Texas (February 24, 2026) Paxton, Ken

An orthopedic surgeon was sentenced Tuesday to 102 months in prison and ordered to pay over $13 million in restitution for his role in a $145 million scheme to defraud the Department of Labor through the submission of fraudulent claims for prescription compound creams. Dr. Michael Taba accepted bribes and kickbacks for writing thousands of prescriptions for unnecessary compounded medications issued to injured federal workers covered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs.

U.S. Department of Justice (February 24, 2026) Office of Public Affairs

When Eddie Brink moved his pharmacy into a newly rebuilt building in Coleman, Texas, in 1962, he brought something Coleman County had never seen before, a drive-thru window. At the time, it was simply called a “drive-in.” But it would quietly become one of the most forward-thinking additions to any business in town. That convenience, now expected in nearly every pharmacy, was groundbreaking in early 1960s rural Texas.

Coleman Today (February 22, 2026)

NATIONAL NEWS

In the first State of the Union address of his second term, President Donald Trump touted economic wins, including on health care. In his speech, Trump claimed he had brought prescription drug costs from the highest in the world to the lowest, thanks to his most-favored nation policy. And he implored congressional Republicans to codify the policy into law, lest his successor hike prescription drug prices.

Stat (February 24, 2026) Cirruzzo, Chelsea and Wilkerson, John

During the State of the Union on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump pointed to lower drug prices as an achievement. Trump said he is "ending the wildly inflated cost of prescription drugs," adding that past administrations were unable to do so. "Americans who, for decades, paid by far the highest prices of any nation anywhere in the world for prescription drugs, will now pay the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs," Trump said.

ABC News (February 25, 2026) Kekatos, Mary; Neporent, Liz; Premaratne, Ishani

Evaluating the impact of TrumpRx requires a closer look at how most Americans access prescription medication. Sixty-six percent of people under age 65 have private health insurance, including 58% with employer-sponsored coverage and 8% with individual insurance purchased on or off ACA Marketplaces. Nearly all (99%) workers with employer-sponsored coverage are at a firm that provides prescription drug coverage to enrollees in its largest health plan.

KFF (February 24, 2026) Pestaina, Kaye; Long, Michelle; Lo, Justin

NCPA orchestrated a sign-on letter to CMS seeking an opportunity to meet regarding the requirement for the Department of Health and Human Services to formulate the specific "reasonable and relevant" contract terms that prescription drug plan (PDP) sponsors will be required to offer pharmacies under the new PBM reform law.

National Community Pharmacists Association (February 18, 2026) Postal, Steve, at al

The Trump administration announced a nationwide moratorium on new suppliers for certain medical equipment, citing a need to get a handle on the “fraud, waste, and abuse” in the industry that provides wheelchairs, artificial limbs and other equipment. “The amount of fraud is so massive that it’s easier to open one of these suppliers than to open a bank account,” said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz.

Stat (February 26, 2026) Broderick, O. Rose

NCPA and the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) submitted joint comments to the Internal Revenue Service of the Department of the Treasury, the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the Department of Labor, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services on the Transparency in Coverage proposed rule. 

National Community Pharmacists Association (February 17, 2026) Postal, Steve, at al

A federal judge has dismissed a nationwide class action lawsuit accusing major pharmacy benefit managers and affiliated companies of violating federal antitrust laws, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to state legally viable claims despite adequately alleging constitutional standing. The court granted a motion to dismiss filed by defendants, including UnitedHealth Group, OptumRX, Express Scripts and related entities.

Legal Newsline (February 23, 2026) Asbury, Kyla

The pharmaceutical and biotech industries are pushing back against two Trump administration proposals that would test plans to lower drug prices in Medicare by aligning them with the prices paid in other rich countries. Their comments preview arguments that they might use in court against the Medicare pilot programs, which would be mandatory and run for five years. It’s too soon for drugmakers to mount legal challenges, as the pilots are still in the proposal phase.

Stat (February 24, 2026) Wilkerson, John

They’re prominent talking points for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his top officials: Taking Tylenol while pregnant could be linked to autism. Antidepressants may be harmful during pregnancy. Aluminum salts in vaccines might pose a health risk. And Covid shots don’t benefit healthy children. The remarks have sowed confusion over the past year. Now, a spate of new research released in the last few months offers some of the strongest rebuttals to date.

NBC News (February 24, 2026) Bendix, Aria

Drugmakers and hospitals are once again locked in battle. HRSA has floated the idea of a rebate model in which hospitals would receive the discounts after purchasing and dispensing the drugs, rather than the current upfront model. Hospitals say this would be financially disastrous and involve them supplying a ton of money up front, while drugmakers are all for it, arguing it’ll help cut down on waste, fraud, and abuse in the program.

Healthcare Brew (February 20, 2026) Anderson, Maia

TRENDING NEWS

While it’s hard to tell how exactly PBMs will be affected by the reforms, it’s likely they’ll make less money. If PBMs have to reimburse all pharmacies the same, for instance, they’ll either have to pay other pharmacies more or their own pharmacies less. As you can imagine, PBMs aren’t thrilled with the reforms, saying the rules will raise drug costs and claiming drugmakers are the real culprits when it comes to high drug prices.

Healthcare Brew (February 24, 2026) Anderson, Maia

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the resolution of three separate lawsuits filed against CVS Health and its related pharmacy benefit manager subsidiary, resulting in $45 million in settlement funds for the state. These funds will be used to implement pharmacy benefit legislation and Medicaid fraud initiatives in collaboration with the Inspector General and the Louisiana Department of Health.

Louisiana Department of Justice (February 20, 2026) Murrill, Liz

Novo Nordisk announced Tuesday that it will reduce the list prices of its popular weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes drugs Ozempic and Rybelsus by up to half starting in 2027. The $675 monthly list price is aimed at making the GLP-1 medications more accessible for patients whose costs are linked to the list price, including those who have high deductibles or who pay co-insurance for medications through their job-based plans.

CNN (February 24, 2026) Luhby, Tami

Eli Lilly and Co. has secured FDA approval for a four-dose KwikPen for its weight-loss drug, Zepbound. This approval allows patients to administer a full month of treatment using a single device, enhancing convenience and adherence. Novo Nordisk's Wegovy has been sold as a single-dose weekly autoinjector pen for weight loss in the U.S. since 2021. Zepbound KwikPen will be available starting at $299 per month for the 2.5-mg dose for cash-paying customers.

Reuters (February 23, 2026)

Community pharmacy leaders voiced concern over Amazon's rollout of prescription dispensing kiosks, arguing the model risks reducing pharmacy care to a transactional experience and weakening the pharmacist-patient relationship. Amazon said that the kiosks expand access and convenience, with pharmacist verification and remote consultation, but critics questioned whether limited formularies and virtual interactions can fully support individualized patient care.

Specialty Pharmacy Continuum (February 22, 2026) Shaw, Gina

Cigna has acquired CarepathRx, a large pharmacy backed by private equity that dispenses prescription drugs to nearly 10% of U.S. hospitals. The acquisition reinforces the company’s push to control more of the lucrative flow of pharmaceuticals through the U.S. health care system. Cigna executives have repeatedly told investors that managing prescription drugs has been one of their highest priorities since the company acquired Express Scripts in 2018.

Stat (February 26, 2026) Herman, Bob

Dentists wrote more than 2.3 million prescriptions last year for clindamycin, whose label has carried a black box warning for more than four decades, due to its high rate of life-threatening complications. Many dentists prescribe antibiotics to healthy patients to prevent potential infections, in spite of research that 80% of these antibiotics are unnecessary. For decades, dental schools taught dentists to prescribe them to prevent procedure-related infections.

CIDRAP (February 24, 2026) Szabo, Liz

An ingredient in Mounjaro was found to reduce alcohol intake in rodents, according to a recent study. In the study, researchers in Sweden, South Carolina and Brazil looked at how the ingredient, tirzepatide, affected rodents. The researchers found that alcohol’s “rewarding properties” were lessened by the ingredient and that behaviors including the voluntary consumption of alcohol and binge drinking dropped.

The Hill (February 23, 2026) Suter, Tara

Moderna announced that its mRNA combined seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccine proved robust and produced a durable immune response in a small, mid-stage trial. There were also no serious safety concerns. The study involved 550 healthy US adults ages 18 to 75 who received either the experimental combo vaccine (mRNA-1073) and a placebo, or two separate shots of Moderna’s commercially available mRNA flu and COVID vaccines.

CIDRAP (February 23, 2026) Soucheray, Stephanie

Cardinal Health released its 2026 Biosimilars Report: Driving access and patient outcomes in physician practices, which highlights the substantial savings biosimilars have delivered to the U.S. healthcare system and the strong confidence providers have in these treatments. The report draws from insights gathered from 101 physician practices nationwide. Nearly 99% of providers surveyed said they feel comfortable explaining biosimilars to patients.

Drug Store News (February 24, 2026) Levy, Sandra

Texas Pharmacy Today
Editor: Brian Sparks, Director, Communications and Marketing
(512) 615-9140 • bsparks@texaspharmacy.org

Texas Pharmacy Association
RoxAnn Dominguez, Pharm.D., Chief Executive Officer
(512) 615-9147