PacifiCare CEO Takes Swipe at Feds, Launches Plan
Pyott Says He’s Not a Botox User; UCI Participates in Key Schizophrenia Study
HEALTHCARE
by Vita Reed
Santa Ana-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. has rolled out a prescription drug plan for Medicare subscribers.
The company’s Secure Horizons Prescription Advantages plan is for California residents and has no annual deductible or maximums. It provides unlimited coverage for about 400 drugs. Most of the coverage is for generic drugs that treat chronic ailments.
PacifiCare Chief Executive Howard Phanstiel cited pharmaceutical cost increases of 12% to 15% for launching the Prescription Advantages program.
Phanstiel also took a swipe at the federal government: “Seniors need prescription drugs now and they are frustrated that Congress has not yet acted to add a prescription drug benefit to traditional Medicare.”
Monthly premiums under the program vary by geographic region. Costs start at $35 a month for seniors aged 65 and 66 and increase to a monthly maximum of $54 for seniors aged 80 or more. The plan’s co-payment structure depends on how the drugs are purchased and the medication’s cost.
PacifiCare said the plan also has discounts of up to 30% on most other drugs when purchased through Prescription Solutions, the company’s pharmacy benefit manager and mail service. Subscribers can get discounts of up to 15% at participating retail pharmacies.
Reaction on Wall Street was relatively mute: PacifiCare’s stock closed at just over 22 on the day the prescription benefits plan was announced, consistent with its performance in recent weeks.
PacifiCare has 3.3 million commercial and Medicare members in California, seven other states and Guam.
Does He or Doesn’t He?
Botox, the flagship product of Irvine drug maker Allergan Inc., continues to be a media sensation.
Recent coverage included a report by online news service CBS MarketWatch.com, which profiled the neurotoxin, and jokingly speculated whether Allergan’s Chief Executive David Pyott was a cosmetic user of the drug.
“With his smooth brow and youthful appearance, David Pyott looks like he’s benefited from several rounds of treatment with popular wrinkle-fighter Botox,” the article said. “And in a sense, Pyott is a Botox beneficiary,even though he says he’s never taken it.”
Pyott contended that “people really haven’t totally appreciated the power of Botox.”
While Botox has fattened Allergan’s profits, the company’s shares at recent check were down 22% this year and about 14% since the Food and Drug Administration approved Botox’s cosmetic application in mid-April.
Pyott attributes Allergan’s recent stock price falloff to the broader decline in the pharmaceutical sector.
Protein Loss
Researchers have learned a bit more about schizophrenia, according to a recent study, which found reduced levels of a protein molecule in the brains of people with the disorder.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and New York City’s Weill Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University, found that a signal processor protein molecule, DARPP-32, was reduced in the brains of deceased schizophrenics.
The study, which included work by UCI psychiatry professor William Bunney, ap-peared in the August edition of Archives of General Psychiatry.
The team looked at the brains of 14 deceased people who had schizophrenia. Researchers found that the protein was reduced in an area of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which has consistently been associated with the disorder’s symptoms.
The medical and scientific communities have become more interested in how DARPP-32 works in recent times. Rockefeller neuroscience professor and study participant Paul Greengard won the Nobel Prize in medicine two years ago for his work on the molecule.
Many neurotransmitters,dopamine, glutamate and serotonin, for instance,and drugs such as cocaine, opiates and nicotine all have been found to work on the brain through DARPP-32’s actions.
The molecule is known to control the actions of dopamine and glutamate, which are linked to schizophrenia. The disorder affects about two million Americans; its cause is currently unknown.
People with schizophrenia often have severe social problems, delusions, hallucinations, reduced emotional responses and grossly disorganized behavior.
“This is the first study to show reduced levels of this important regulatory molecule in schizophrenia,” Bunney said. “If DARPP-32 plays such a key role in controlling physiological activity in this part of the brain, perhaps there could be methods we could use to eventually maintain normal levels of the molecule.”
The research was supported by gifts and grants from the National Association for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression and the National Institutes of Health, among others.
