Analysis

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.

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.

Today’s guest post comes from Jan Nielsen, Patient Solutions Division President at AssistRx.

Jan discusses the challenges facing life sciences organizations’ patient support program reverification processes. Jan then highlights how the right vendor can help overcome these challenges for both pharmacy and medical benefit products. She offers real-world examples how of AssistRx implements these solutions for clients.

To learn more about AssistRx’s solutions for medical benefit products, read their latest case study: eMedical Benefit Verification: Improving Speed to Therapy and Patient & HCP Experiences.

Read on for Jan’s insights.

Summer unofficially began over the weekend. Let’s turn up the heat with these sizzling news bites, seared to perfection on the Drug Channels grill:

• CVS Health’s Cordavis business seems to want quasi-regulatory oversight of Humira biosimilars

• 340B’s skyrocketing growth continues, but the market is changing

• Plans sponsors' fading interest in alternative funding programs

• A post-Asembia review from DCI’s trip to Las Vegas

Plus, South Park goes after insurance companies and PBMs over GLP-1 coverage.

P.S. Join my nearly 56,000 LinkedIn followers for daily links to neat stuff.

Register now for 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 event.

In my recent Drug Channel Implications of the Inflation Reduction Act video webinar, I explained the intended and unintended consequences of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) for the commercial market and drug channel participants.

In the video excerpt below, I walk through a mathematical example to show 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. What’s more, a product with a maximum fair price (MFP) may also raise total costs for the healthcare system—despite the likely political posturing and spin.

If this clip whets your appetite for more, register to watch a replay of the full 90-minute video webinar from April.

Curious about the IRA will disrupt the 340B market? Then register for 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.

Click here if you can’t see the video below.

Dr. Adam J. Fein, president of Drug Channels Institute (DCI) and the author of Drug Channels, invites you to join him for DCI’s new live video webinar:

Trends, Controversies, and Outlook

Friday, June 21, 2024, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET

This page describes the event and explains how to purchase a registration. The webinar will be broadcast from the Drug Channels studio in beautiful downtown Philadelphia.

This event is part of The Drug Channels 2024 Video Webinar Series.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

The federal 340B Drug Pricing Program continues to grow much more quickly than the overall pharmaceutical market. For 2023, total purchases under the 340B program exceeded $124 billion. DCI estimates that 340B discounts equated to more than 17% of total value of gross-to-net reductions for brand-name pharmaceuticals. The 340B program also remains a significant and controversial source of profits for the pharmacy and pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industries.

In this all-new webinar, Dr. Fein will provide a fact-based look at the 340B program, summarize the multiple controversies surrounding the program’s operations, and deliver a clear-eyed outlook for the program’s future. Key topics will include:

• Current operations of the 340B program

• 340B growth trends by dispensing/administration channel and covered entity type

• Following the 340B dollar

• Contract pharmacy controversies

• Impact of CMS’s latest 340B guidance for the Inflation Reduction Act

• PBM and pharmacy profits from the 340B program

• Vertical integration and third-party administrators

• How state Medicaid program reforms are affecting the 340B program

• Manufacturers’ 340B strategies

• State and federal legislative actions and outlook

• 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 at least 90 minutes to accommodate audience questions.

As always, Dr. Fein will clearly distinguish his opinions and interpretations from the objective facts and data. He will also draw from exclusive information found in DCI's 2024 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers.

Read on for full details on pricing and registration.

Today’s guest post is from Dr. Preeti Parikh, a practicing pediatrician and VP, Executive Medical Director at GoodRx.

At the recent Publicis Health Media HealthFront event, Preeti hosted a dialogue on the main stage with Dr. Minisha Sood. They discussed new GoodRx research and had a candid discussion about their daily challenges in caring for patients—especially those living with diabetes and obesity.

Click here to watch the full video of the conversation between Drs. Parikh and Sood.

Read on for Preeti’s insights.

Contrary to what you may have heard, the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) inflation rebates for Medicare Part B drugs do not always save money for seniors.

As we document below, a growing share of Part B drugs have inflation-adjusted coinsurance rates that have been increasing, not declining. In many cases, the coinsurance rate declines only briefly before rebounding back to the standard 20% rate. What’s more, these fluctuations have triggered huge jumps in patients’ out-of-pocket obligations for some drugs—even when a drug’s costs were falling.

Chalk off these coinsurance surprises to yet another unintended consequence of the IRA. Seniors who are expecting to see costs drop may find they are instead being taken for a rollercoaster ride.

Today’s guest post comes from Hannah Baxter, Associate Partner at The Dedham Group; Jen Klarer, Partner, Head of Cell & Gene Therapy at The Dedham Group; and Carolyn Zele, Advisor, Solution Consulting at MMIT.

The authors discuss the access barriers facing patients who need biomarker testing. They discuss five ways manufacturers can prevent these barriers from affecting patients.

To learn more about navigating the complexities of market access, contact MMIT and its sister company, The Dedham Group.

Read on for their insights.

It's time for Drug Channels’ annual update of vertical integration among insurers, PBMs, specialty pharmacies, and providers within U.S. drug channels.

Below you’ll find our latest illustration of the major vertical business relationships among the largest companies along with some of the notable activity since our previous update. These organizations continue to exert greater control over patient access, sites of care/dispensing, and pricing, although some have started to unwind their vertical efforts.

The companies face renewed scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, the Office of Inspector General, and members of Congress. But until anyone takes action, we will continue to live with the golden rule of the drug channel: Whoever has the gold gets to make the rules.