CVS and Generation Health team to expand pharmacy offerings

Woonsocket, R.I. CVS Caremark and Generation Health, a genetic benefit management company, said Tuesday they have forged a partnership to expand pharmacogenomic clinical and testing services for CVS Caremark pharmacy benefit management clients to improve care for patients who either are non-responsive or have adverse reactions to their medications.

Through this partnership, CVS Caremark said it will use genetic testing to apply greater precision to client prescription management, with the goal of improving individual health outcomes and reducing overall medical costs.

CVS Caremark currently provides PGx intervention services in its specialty pharmacy business. This partnership expands upon those offerings to specialty pharmacy and introduces them for targeted drugs dispensed under the traditional PBM setting, said CVS.

The companies will initially focus on PGx clinical and testing programs that predict how a patient will respond to medications in areas of oncology, cardiovascular medicine, treatment of HIV and others.

"Personalized medicine is a fast-growing field, but the process for providing relevant and systematic clinical delivery of service needs to improve and evolve," said Troyen A. Brennan, M.D., executive VP and chief medical officer of CVS Caremark.

CVS Caremark is making a minority equity investment in Generation Health and as part of the agreement Dr. Brennan will join the board of directors of Generation Health. No additional financial terms of the partnership arrangement are being disclosed.