Drug Channels delivers timely analysis and provocative opinions 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...
Today’s guest post comes from Josh Marsh, Vice President and General Manager of Sonexus™ Access and Patient Support at Cardinal Health.
Josh discusses factors that drive manufacturers to insource versus outsource patient support services. He shares data from a Cardinal Health survey of biopharmaceutical companies and offers four factors to consider when evaluating your patient support program.
For 2023, DCI estimates that U.S. prescription dispensing revenues reached $621 billion in 2023, driven by accelerating GLP-1 prescriptions and an expanding post-pandemic market. The table below—one of 262 in our new report—provides DCI's first look at the 15 largest organizations that battled for those revenues.
Today’s guest post comes from Logan Melchione, VP of Patient Affordability at Paysign.
Logan discusses the evolution of patient support programs. She then outlines how these programs must evolve to stay relevant and valuable.
To request an analysis of your copay savings program and learn more about Paysign’s patient affordability solutions, contact affordability@paysign.com or visit paysign.com/rx.
On March 19, 2024, Drug Channels Institute will release The 2024 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers. This report—our fifteenth edition—remains the most comprehensive, fact-based tool for understanding the entire U.S. drug pricing, reimbursement, and dispensing system. This unique, encyclopedic resource is your ultimate guide to the complex web of interactions within U.S. prescription drug channels.
12 chapters, 500+ pages, 262 exhibits, nearly 1,100 endnotes: There is nothing else available that comes close to this valuable resource.
We are providing you with the opportunity to preorder this thoroughly updated, revised, and expanded 2024 edition at special discounted prices. This means that you can be among the first to access our new report. Those who preorder will receive a download link before March 19.
Dr. Adam J. Fein, president of Drug Channels Institute (DCI) and the author of Drug Channels, invites you to join him for DCI’s latest live video webinar:
This post describes the event and explains how to purchase a registration. The webinar will be broadcast from the Drug Channels studio in beautiful downtown Philadelphia.
In 2023, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) began to alter the Medicare Part D program and trigger changes in beneficiary out-of-pocket spending, drug prices, pharmacy economics, and market access strategies. The IRA’s impact will extend far beyond the Medicare program into many aspects of the overall drug channel.
In this all-new webinar, Dr. Fein will unpack the intended and unintended consequences of the IRA for the commercial market and drug channel participants, including:
What’s ahead for brand-name drug list and net prices
The coming battles over high-list/high-rebate products
The Medicare Advantage boom and the collapse of the stand-alone PDP market
The gross-to-net bubble outlook for Part D
The IRA’s spillover impact on the gross-to-net bubble in commercial markets
How the IRA will impact Medicaid rebates and change the 340B Drug Pricing Program
What’s ahead for utilization management
Retail pharmacies’ coming financial challenges
The uptick in consolidation of physician practices
Biosimilar market uncertainties
And much more!
PLUS: During the webinar, Dr. Fein will give participants an opportunity to unmute themselves and ask live questions. The webinar will last 90 minutes to accommodate audience questions.
Please note that Dr. Fein will focus on the IRA’s patient and commercial market impacts. The potential effect of the IRA on manufacturers’ new drug research and development strategies is beyond the scope of this webinar.
Read on for full details on pricing and registration.
Today’s guest post comes from Era Prakash, Vice President of Product Management at Cencora.
Era contends that workflow integration can help biopharma companies address challenges that limit provider utilization of patient support programs. She also outlines three major challenges related to the provider workflow technology market.
February is longer than usual this year, which means that you’ll have extra time to leap into our monthly curated selection of noteworthy news. In this issue:
An update on the retail pharmacy shakeout
Arguing for high drug prices
A leading researcher provides a 340B reality check
Physicians don’t want pharmacists getting uppity
Plus, Dave Grohl fights for your right to…have healthcare price transparency?
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Like many of you, I have believed that the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) will encourage Medicare Part D plans to adopt low-list-price products over their high-list/high-rebate counterparts, thereby popping the gross-to-net bubble.
Actually, maybe not.
Below, I explain why the IRA will encourage Part D plans to prefer high-list, high-rebate specialty drugs, even as the government and manufacturers will prefer a low-list-price version. Just another IRA-inflicted hit for biosimilars?
The warped incentives don't stop there. Even more weirdly, both products with a negotiated maximum fair price (MFP) and low-list-price products will raise total costs for the healthcare system and increase beneficiary premiums.
Today’s guest post comes from Gavin Magaha, Senior Director of Value Delivery at Kalderos.
Gavin discusses the problems manufacturers face in accessing and standardizing drug discount data. These data are necessary to avoid duplicate discounts and comply with regulatory requirements.
To learn more about how the Inflation Reduction Act adds to challenges of drug discount programs, download Kalderos’ whitepaper:
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.
As he explains, manufacturers want hub partners that can take a holistic approach and address each patient’s individual needs. Nasir also discusses how hub selection criteria are evolving.
