Supermarket News editor-in-chief David Orgel is the latest to write about the "controversial" comments of Express Scripts CEO George Paz, who dismissed the value of pharmacy by saying "...drugs are drugs, and it shouldn't matter that much who's counting to 30." 

Last week's anti-pharmacy comments of Express Scripts CEO George Paz have touched off fury on Twitter and in the blog world, very similar to the reaction of similar comments by Medco CEO David Snow last October.

NACDS says “pill counters” comment rivals Medco CEO’s “robots vs. pharmacists” comment in insensitivity toward patients and pharmacists alike

Following in the tradition of Medco CEO David Snow, who disregarded neighborhood pharmacists in remarks at a Cleveland Clinic conference last October, Express Scripts CEO George Paz today revealed his apparent less-than-high-esteem for the otherwise highly popular profession.

Associated Press business writer Tom Murphy quoted Paz as saying the following during a conference call with analysts:  "At the end of the day ... Nexium is Nexium, Lipitor is Lipitor, drugs are drugs, and it shouldn't matter that much who's counting to 30."

“These CEOs told Congress in two recent hearings that they like pharmacists.  Their comments about pharmacists in other settings may not rise to contempt of Congress, but they certainly meet the standard for contempt of patient care,” said National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) President and CEO Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE.

“This comment by Express Scripts CEO George Paz rivals the insensitivity toward patients and pharmacists demonstrated by Medco CEO David Snow in his now infamous ‘robots vs. pharmacists’ comment.”

Writing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, columnist Kevin Horrigan provided further evidence that the pen indeed is mightier than the sword.  It would be hard to imagine a more artful though devastating account of the proposed Express Scripts and Medco merger.  

Perhaps it was deception, or perhaps it was denial, when Medco CEO David Snow dismissed the relationship between patients and community pharmacists as "fiction."  In any case, his words at an October healthcare conference at Cleveland Clinic have bitten him back again, this time with a member of Congress from Wisconsin citing his rhetoric in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission.

Says PBMs’ flawed claims are “illustrative” of current practices and of future actions if anti-competitive and anti-consumer merger is allowed

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores submitted comments to U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), clarifying misleading statements made by Express Scripts Chief Executive Officer George Paz and Medco Chief Executive Officer David Snow at a recent congressional hearing.

"One of the main arguments, Mr. Paz, for the merger, is that, combined, you'll be able to develop more innovation and new clinical tools and strategies for cutting costs.  And yet, we all know that innovation is the fruit of competition and that the more competitors, the more innovation and the better the consumer is served.  You seem to be making an argument to the contrary.  Have you come up with a new concept for how capitalism works?"

- Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, at a hearing today on the proposed merger of Express Scripts and Medco.  Chairman Kohl asked the question of George Paz, chairman and CEO, Express Scripts, Inc.