Santa Monica-based prescription drug savings platform GoodRx Holdings Inc. has hired a pharmacy benefits industry veteran as its next chief executive.
Wendy Barnes, currently chief executive of Birmingham, Alabama-based pharmacy benefits management company RxBenefits Inc., will take the helm of GoodRx on Jan. 1.
Barnes replaces Scott Wagner, who has served the past 19 months as interim chief executive. Wagner, who previously was as a top executive at Tempe, Arizona-based internet domain registration service GoDaddy Inc., was hired following the sudden exit last year of GoodRx co-founders and co-chief executives Trevor Bezdek and Doug Hirsch, who both moved up to executive board posts with the company.
Unlike Wagner, Barnes has decades of experience in the pharmacy benefits industry. As chief executive of RxBenefits since 2022, Barnes has overseen pharmacy benefit support services for more than 2,000 self-insured clients that in turn provided pharmacy benefits to more than 3 million people.
Before that, Barnes was president of St. Louis-based Express Scripts Pharmacy, the nation’s second-largest pharmacy benefits manager that ultimately provides prescription drug services on behalf of more than 100 million people across the country. Prior to that, Barnes held executive posts at Philadelphia-based Rite Aid Corp. and at other companies in the health care field. She also served 10 years as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the U.S. Air Force.
Challenges at the firm
Barnes will take over a company that is still feeling the aftereffects of a major dispute two years ago with Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kroger Co., parent of Ralph’s Grocery Co. and Food 4 Less. In the spring of 2022, Kroger pharmacies stopped accepting GoodRx discounts; neither company elaborated on the points of dispute. The impasse was resolved a few months later, but not before the company was forced to reduce its revenue guidance by $30 million for the third quarter of 2022. Subsequently, GoodRx inked a new deal with Kroger. But the share price has never recovered to the levels before the dispute surfaced.
During his brief tenure, Wagner sought to restore investor confidence; he did succeed in stopping the relentless slide in GoodRx’s share price. And he also put in place new service offerings, including boosting direct-to-consumer medication sales and negotiating more discount programs with pharmaceutical companies.
But over the past year, the entire pharmacy industry has come under increasing stress from drug shortages, staffing shortages, declines in reimbursements from insurers and several other issues. Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy in October of last year, while CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance have been shuttering drug stores. These store closings have impacted GoodRx – Wagner said earlier this year that in the second half of the year, RiteAid store closings would cost GoodRx about $5 million in revenue.
On the insurance side, carriers have been steadily reducing the percentage of prescription medications they cover. GoodRx is trying to take advantage of this trend, stressing that its discount programs can fill in the gaps left by dwindling insurance coverage.
“I am thrilled to join GoodRx and contribute to its mission of making health care more affordable for millions of Americans,” she said. “With the evolving challenges in health care delivery and management, I look forward to working with our talented executive leadership team to foster growth and innovation at GoodRx.”
