Drug Channels delivers timely analysis and provocative opinions from Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., the country's foremost expert on pharmaceutical economics and the drug distribution system. Drug Channels reaches an engaged, loyal and growing audience of more than 100,000 subscribers and followers. Learn more...

Friday, June 28, 2024

Breaking Down Medication Access and Affordability Barriers

Today’s guest post comes from Kristina Crockett, VP of Product Management at CoverMyMeds.

Kristina discusses challenges patients face accessing, affording, and adhering to prescribed medications. She goes on to describe how manufacturers can overcome these challenges to improve outcomes for both patients and brands.

Click here to learn more about CoverMyMeds’ technology solutions.

Read on for Kristina’s insights.

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Drug Channels News Roundup, June 2024: Cordavis Humira Update, OptumRx’s New Biosim Biz, Generic Drugs' Wild Ride, IRA Predictions, and Dr. G on Med School

Happy 248th birthday, America! Before you launch your July 4 festivities, Drug Channels offers some fireworks of its own:
  • CVS Health’s Cordavis is winning the Humira biosimilar battle
  • Meet NUVAILA, OptumRx’s new biosimilar procurement business
  • The acquisition cost revolution hits a speedbump following NADAC volatility
  • Five predictions about the IRA’s impact on the drug channel
Plus, Dr. Glaucomflecken wonders why physicians don't learn about U.S. medicine’s economic realities.

P.S. Join my nearly 57,000 LinkedIn followers for daily links to neat stuff along with commentary from the Drug Channels community. Note that we will soon migrate our social media activity to the Drug Channels Institute LinkedIn page.

Top exceutives from Cencora, Eli Lilly, Optum Rx, and Walgreens will be headlining the inaugural Drug Channels Leadership Forum. Attendance will be limited, so click here to request an invite for our March 2025 event.

Monday, June 24, 2024

Meet the Four Executives Headlining the Drug Channels Leadership Forum

Good news, everyone! We have secured four outstanding fireside chat participants for our inaugural Drug Channels Leadership Forum, which will be held next March in Miami.

I’ll be leading one-on-one conversations with each of these executives:
  • Steven H. Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO, Cencora, Inc.
  • Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, CEO, Optum Rx
  • Frank Cunningham, Group Vice President, Global Value and Access & Lilly Direct, Eli Lilly and Company
  • Tim Wentworth, CEO, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
Our fireside chats will illuminate crucial issues and key strategic concerns affecting the prescription drug market and the entire U.S. healthcare system.


The event will also include panel discussions covering a range of important topics. Participants in these panels will be announced this fall.

IMPORTANT: To maximize the value of networking and learning, the event will have a limited number of attendees. Click here to request an invitation.

We will also have a limited number of sponsors. Click here to learn more about sponsorship opportunities.

Read on for the full press release. Hope you can join us!

Friday, June 21, 2024

Mark Cuban: Five Ways that Big PBMs Hurt U.S. Healthcare–And How We Can Fix It (rerun)

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for today's live video webinar: The 340B Drug Pricing Program: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook. The webinar begins at 12:00 PM ET.

Click here to see the original post from March 2024.


Today’s guest post comes from Mark Cuban, co-founder of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company

A few weeks ago, Mark participated in the White House Roundtable on Lowering Healthcare Costs and Bringing Transparency to Prescription Drug Middlemen. I found Mark’s comments to be intriguing and highly provocative, so I invited him to publish an edited version exclusively here on Drug Channels.

Read on for Mark’s unfiltered view of the PBM industry. Feel free to add your own thoughts below or on LinkedIn.

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Copay Accumulator and Maximizer Update: Adoption Expands as Legal Barriers Grow (rerun)

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for tomorrow's live video webinar: The 340B Drug Pricing Program: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook.

Click here to see the original post from February 2024.


It's Valentine’s Day—and commercial plan sponsors remain smitten with copay accumulators and maximizers.

Our latest update finds that as of late 2023, about half of commercial lives were in plans that utilize a copay accumulator and/or a maximizer. These programs’ growth continues to divert the value of a manufacturer’s copay support payments away from patients and toward plans and PBMs. Check out the data below.

Patient advocacy groups and some big legal wins are starting to reverse Cupid’s arrow. But given the money at stake, I suspect that plans will keep looking for love in all the wrong places.

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Independents Outshine PBMs in Manufacturers’ Exclusive Specialty Pharmacy Networks (rerun)

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for Friday’s live video webinar: The 340B Drug Pricing Program: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook.

Click here to see the original post from April 2024.


Last week, we documented the substantial concentration of dispensing revenues for specialty drugs. See The Top 15 Specialty Pharmacies of 2023: Market Shares and Revenues at the Biggest PBMs, Health Plans, and Independents.

Today, we examine how manufacturers’ specialty networks contribute to this concentration. In DCI’s exclusive analysis below, we show that specialty pharmacies affiliated with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) play an outsized role in manufacturer-designated dispensing networks.

A typical network contains about five specialty pharmacies—but one in three specialty products with a manufacturer-designated network contains only a single specialty pharmacy. In those exclusive networks, independent and smaller specialty pharmacies are the big winners.

Read on for DCI’s updated profile of specialty networks—and ponder why smaller pharmacies are winning the battle for exclusive networks.

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

The Top 15 Specialty Pharmacies of 2023: Market Shares and Revenues at the Biggest PBMs, Health Plans, and Independents (rerun)

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for Friday’s live video webinar: The 340B Drug Pricing Program: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook.

One important update to the figures below: We (and many others) had significantly underestimated Walgreens' revenues and market share. As we discuss below, its market share is closer to 10%, compared with the 3% that we originally reported.

Click here to see the original post from April 2024.


Drug Channels Institute’s (DCI’s) latest analysis finds that participants in the specialty pharmacy market continue to get more diverse—although revenues remain highly concentrated.

We have identified nearly 1,800 dispensing sites with specialty pharmacy accreditation—about 40% of which are owned by hospitals, physician practices, and other healthcare providers.

Alas, specialty pharmacies owned by the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have the most brass in their pocket, as they accounted for two-thirds of prescription revenues from pharmacy-dispensed specialty drugs.

Read on for DCI’s latest overview of the 2023 marketplace and revenues of the biggest market participants, along with key specialty pharmacy trends.

Monday, June 17, 2024

The Top Pharmacy Benefit Managers of 2023: Market Share and Trends for the Biggest Companies—And What’s Ahead (rerun)

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for Friday’s live video webinar: The 340B Drug Pricing Program: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook.

Click here to see the original post from April 2024.


Three is still the magic number for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

For 2023, nearly 80% of all equivalent prescription claims were processed by three companies: the Caremark business of CVS Health, the Express Scripts business of Cigna, and the Optum Rx business of UnitedHealth Group.

Read on for Drug Channels Institute’s (DCI’s) latest market share figures, along with a preview of the industry changes that will shift these shares over the next few years.

Friday, June 14, 2024

Expanding our Definitions of Out-of-Pocket Costs: Three Imperatives for Biopharmaceutical Manufacturers

Today’s guest post comes from Christine Juday, Head of Market Access at Real Chemistry.

Chris discusses new research on how patients perceive out-of-pocket costs. As she explains, many patients and unpaid caregivers consider out-of-pocket costs for medication within the context of their total spending. She then recommends three ways that manufacturers can improve patients' access and affordability.

Click here to learn more about Real Chemistry’s suite of market access consulting and payer/IDN marketing solutions. You can also sign up for its weekly Value Report, summarizing the week in drug pricing, access, and value news.

Read on for Chris' insights.

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Hospitals Are Relying More on PBMs to Manage Manufacturers' 340B Contract Pharmacy Restrictions: DCI's 2024 Market Analysis

The 340B contract pharmacy market shows little sign of slowing down. Drug Channels Institute’s exclusive analysis of the 2024 market reveals that:
  • About 33,000 pharmacy locations—more than half of the entire U.S. pharmacy industry—act as contract pharmacies for the hospitals and federal grantees that participate in the 340B program. 
  • Five multi-billion-dollar, for-profit, publicly traded pharmacy chains and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—Cigna (via Express Scripts), CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group (via OptumRx), and Walgreens, Walmart—continue to dominate the 340B contract pharmacy market.
  • Federal grantees are aligned primarily with the vertically intergated organizations' retail pharmacies, while hospitals rely on mail and specialty pharmacies.
Over the past four years, manufacturers’ restrictions on 340B contract pharmacies have led hospitals to deepen their relationships with the largest PBMs—even as those PBMs have simultaneously limited hospitals’ direct participation in specialty pharmacy networks.

For an updated look at what’s next for the 340B contract pharmacy market, join Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., on June 21 for his latest live video webinar: The 340B Drug Pricing Program: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook.

Friday, June 07, 2024

Choosing the Right Hub Partner: A Blueprint for Decision-Makers

Today’s guest post comes from Nasir Ali, Chief Product Officer at CareMetx.

Nasir highlights manufacturers' top objectives and vendor metrics from CareMetx’s recent survey of leaders and decision makers in the specialty pharmaceutical industry. He then outlines key questions to help manufacturers evaluate their potential hub partners.

You can donwload CareMetx’s full 2024 Patient Services Report here: Revealing Manufacturer Priorities: Patients Naturally Take Center Stage.

Read on for Nasir’s insights.

Tuesday, June 04, 2024

Pharmacist Salaries and Employment in 2023: The Grass Keeps Getting Greener in Hospitals

It’s time for the annual update to Drug Channels Institute’s (DCI) analysis of pharmacist salaries and employment.

2023 was another tough year for pharmacists working in retail settings. While average salaries grew, they did not keep pace with overall inflation. Pharmacist employment at drug stores shrank but grew at supermarkets and mass merchants.

Meanwhile, employment and salaries in non-retail settings—hospitals, physician offices, outpatient centers, and home healthcare—continued to grow. These settings now employ one in three U.S. pharmacists. Greener grass—or just different soil?

Full salary and employment data below for your enjoyment or sorrow.

What’s ahead for 340B-eligible hospitals? Find out during The 340B Drug Pricing Program: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook, a new live video webinar with Adam J. Fein, PhD. Click here to learn more and reserve your spot at the June 21 webinar.