HHSC: Drug Utilization Review Board

MEETING SUMMARY Call to order: Roll was called. A quorum was present. Approval of minutes from October 26, 2018: The minutes were approved. New business Public comment on drug classes and therapeutic and clinical drug reviews to be reviewed for the Medicaid Preferred Drug List (PDL): Acne agents, oral none. Acne agents, topical none. Analgesics, narcotic long: Dr. John Hall: This physician works in pain management in San Antonio and states that his practice is struggling due to the effort to reduce opioid equivalents. Particularly, he sees difficulty with back patients who have had multiple surgeries. Embeda is a long-acting drug that performs better than other opioids and is not as likely to be resold on the street. Primary care physicians have stopped prescribing opioids. Embeda keeps morphine equivalency down. Buprenorphine is the active ingredient. Carmine Colavecchia- PharmD, PhD: This individual asked that Pfizer’s Embeda remain on the prefer