(Axios) – Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. retail pharmacies closed over a decade in a series of cutbacks that weighed heaviest on communities of color already grappling with health disparities and barriers to care. Why it matters: The closures illustrate how prescription drug market forces and a changing retail landscape are constricting the delivery of care and worsening inequities.

The big picture: Independent pharmacies were likelier to close from 2010 to 2021, possibly because pharmacy benefit managers steered patients to their own in-network pharmacies, University of California, Berkeley and University of Southern California researchers found. (Read More)