Analysis

Next week, Drug Channels Institute will release our 2023 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers. It’s the 14th edition of our popular and comprehensive examination of the entire U.S. drug pricing, reimbursement, and dispensing system.

The exhibit below—one of 241 in our new report—provides a first look at the 15 largest organizations, ranked by total U.S. prescription dispensing revenues for calendar year 2022. U.S. prescription dispensing revenues reached a record $548 billion in 2022.

Not to put too fine a point on it—but they might be giants. The largest 15 pharmacies accounted for more than 75% of total dispensing revenues from retail, mail, long-term care, and specialty pharmacies. The top 15's share dipped slightly compared with their 2021 share, due primarily to the significant revenue losses for Walgreens Boots Alliance’s AllianceRx Walgreens Pharmacy.

For a sneak peek at the complete report, click here to download our free report overview (including key industry trends, the table of contents, and a list of exhibits). We’re offering special discounted pricing if you order before April 3, 2023.

How will GoodRx and Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company affect the pharmacy industry? Find out at my upcoming live video webinar, Discount Cards, Cost-Plus Pharmacies, and PBMs: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook, on March 31, 2023, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET. Click here to learn more and sign up.

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

Discount Cards, Cost-Plus Pharmacies, and PBMs:
Trends, Controversies, and Outlook
This event will be broadcast live on Friday, March 31, 2023,
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 2023 Video Webinar Series. Anyone who registered for the entire series will receive an email with a link to access the March event.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

The rapid expansion of patient-paid prescriptions—via cash-pay pharmacies and discount card vendors—is transforming the prescription market. Join Dr. Fein as he helps you and your team deepen their understanding of this important issue and its crucial implications. He will draw from exclusive information found in DCI's new 2023 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers.

During the event, Dr. Fein will cover a wide range of topics, including:

• What’s driving the boom in patient-paid prescriptions

• The warped economics of the generic prescription channel

• Cash-pay prescriptions vs. discount cards

• Why Usual & Customary (U&C) prices matter

• The latest market data on the discount card market and its key participants

• The complex economics of discount cards

• How PBMs profit from—and are challenged by—patient-paid prescriptions

• Pharmacy strategies and reactions

• Why and how plans are placing discount cards within pharmacy benefits

• Commentary on GoodRx, Mark Cuban Cost-Plus Drug Company, and more

• Outlook for disruption of the pharmacy benefit market

• Controversies and unresolved questions

• And 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.

As always, Dr. Fein will clearly distinguish his opinions and interpretations from the objective facts and data.

Read on for full details on pricing and registration.

PRICING OPTIONS

You can register for this unique educational opportunity for only $380 per viewing device. Within 24 hours of your purchase, you will receive an email from Zoom with a unique link to access the webinar replay video.

We are offering substantial discounts for multiple registrations from the same organization. We know that many of you may still be working from home, so rates for multiple registrations are as low as $265 per device—a 30% savings. An unlimited number of people may watch at one location if they can watch from a single device.

Click here to order. All discounts will be automatically computed based on the number of registrations you enter in your cart. (You can reset the cart by entering 0 in the quantity field.)

Please contact Paula Fein (paula@drugchannels.net) if you have any questions. If you purchase access for multiple devices, we will contact you for a list of your participants and their email addresses. Or, download this spreadsheet and email your registrants’ information to Tamra Feldman (admin@drugchannels.net).

Click here to register for the full Drug Channels 2023 Video Webinar Series

Payment can be made with all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) or via PayPal. Click here to email us if you would like to pay by corporate purchase order or check.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW

• Watch and listen via any device with a web browser (computer, iPad, iPhone/Android, etc.) There is no access via telephone.

• We use Zoom technology for this webinar. Every registrant will receive an email from Zoom with a link to watch the event. This link is unique to the registrant and can only be accessed once. We recommend that every registrant download the Zoom client software/app.

• Prior to the event, every registrant will receive an email from Zoom with a link to access the event and add it to their calendar. Every registrant will also receive reminder emails from Zoom one week, one day, and one hour before the event.

• This event is part of The Drug Channels 2023 Video Webinar Series. If you have already purchased the full series, you should have received an email from no-reply@zoom.us with your unique link to access the event.

• Organizations that purchased corporate access for The Drug Channels 2023 Video Webinar Series will receive a custom, branded signup link so employees can easily register. We will automatically refund payments from anyone at a company with corporate access who purchases a single registration using their corporate email account.

• Unfortunately, we are unable to offer refunds.

Informa Connect’s Drug Pricing Transparency Congress
May 16-17, 2023 in Washington, DC
Drug Channels readers can save 10% with code 23DRCH10
www.informaconnect.com/drug-pricing-transparency

Join Informa Connect on May 16-17, 2023 in Washington, DC at the Drug Pricing Transparency Congress to stay on the pulse of federal and state reporting requirements, policy initiatives and strategic best practices for compliance. Experts from across the industry will discuss how current and future drug pricing transparency regulations will impact commercialization, reimbursement, pricing and compliance practices. Plus, assess how companies are internally planning for these changes.

View the agenda for Drug Pricing Transparency 2023 to see the complete picture – the program, speakers, and more, and visit www.informaconnect.com/drug-pricing-transparency for further details and to register. Drug Channels readers will save 10% off when they use code 23DRCH10 and register prior to March 31, 2023.*

Here's just a little sneak peek at what's to come:

• You'll hear perspectives from the who's who in drug pricing and transparency, including companies such as Actelion, Ascendis Pharma, BIO, Chiesi, ClassOne Insight, Endo, Gilead Sciences, Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, iContracts, King & Spalding, Latham & Watkins, Mallinckrodt, Maryland Prescription Drug Affordability Board, Model N, Neurocrine Biosciences, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, PhRMA, Porzio Life Sciences, Riparian, Sanofi, Teva, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Districts of MA and NJ, and Viatris
• You'll take a deep dive into the hottest topics keeping you up at night, including
• Drug Pricing Transparency Pressures
• DOJ Drug Pricing Transparency Priorities
• Legal Updates on Authorized Generics and the U.S. Drug Pricing of Brand Name Drugs
• Resource Allocation for Your Medicaid, Market Access and GP Teams
• Updated Review Including CMS Guidance of the Inflation Reduction Act
• Implication of Stacked and Value Based Contract Product Agreements on Medicaid Pricing
• And much more!

Informa Connect is also thrilled that this year's Congress is part of Pricing & Contracting USA! You'll have the benefit of networking with like-minded executives from across the life science industry as we bring together attendees from three industry leading events (the Medicaid & Government Pricing Congress, the Drug Pricing Transparency Congress and the Commercial Contracts & Chargebacks Summit) in the pricing and contracting arena.

View the agenda for Drug Pricing Transparency 2023 to see the complete picture – the program, speakers, and more, and visit www.informaconnect.com/drug-pricing-transparency for further details and to register. Drug Channels readers will save 10% off when they use code 23DRCH10 and register prior to March 31, 2023.*

*Cannot be combined with other offers or used towards a current registration. Cannot be combined with special category rates or other offers. Other restrictions may apply.

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The content of Sponsored Posts does not necessarily reflect the views of Pembroke Consulting, Inc., Drug Channels, or any of its employees. To find out how you can promote an event on Drug Channels, please contact Paula Fein (paula@drugchannels.net).

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

Jan discusses digital hubs and the benefits they offer both patients on specialty therapies and their health care providers. To learn more, download AssistRx's free 61-page eBook: Specialty Drug Patient Support Programs: 2022 Progress Report.

Read on for Jan’s insights.

The era of artificial-intelligence chatbots has arrived! I am pleased to report that this month’s Drug Channels news roundup was most definitely not written by ChatGPT. No promises about future articles. (See our forecast to the right.)

In this issue:

• Mark Cuban explains his anti-PBM strategy

• What physicians think about Humira biosimilars

• States go after PBMs

• HHS is confused about 340B transparency

Plus, The Onion tests your knowledge of United Healthcare’s policies.

P.S. Join my nearly 38,000 LinkedIn followers for daily links to neat stuff. You can also find my daily posts at @DrugChannels on Twitter, where I have nearly 16,000 followers.

Today’s guest post comes from Matt Hall, President of Patient Solutions at CareMetx.

Matt shares three key findings from CareMetx’s exclusive new survey on patient support services for specialty pharmaceuticals. To learn more, download CareMetx’s free 2022 Report - Patient Services Trends.

Read on for Matt’s insights.

Is the gold rush in copay accumulators and maximizers slowing down?

Our latest update finds that for 2022, about 40% of commercial lives have adopted these benefit designs. Accumulator adoption has plateaued, while maximizer use has overtaken accumulators. Patients who take a single-source, brand-name specialty drug for autoimmune conditions, multiple sclerosis, and oncology increasingly face these benefit designs. Check out the plan and patient data below.

Patients are caught in the middle of a complex battle among insurers, PBMs, and drugmakers. They are rightfully unhappy that their plans are grabbing the copay support funds. That’s why legislation, lawsuits, and patient advocacy are growing. Manufacturers are also pushing back on plans’ copay games.

These reactions will slow the financial windfall for plans and PBMs—and raise the risk that plans will push the ethical boundaries even farther.

On March 14, 2023, Drug Channels Institute will release The 2023 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers. This report—our fourteenth edition—remains the most comprehensive, fact-based tool for understanding the entire U.S. drug pricing, reimbursement, and dispensing system.

12 chapters, 480+ pages, 241 exhibits, 900+ 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 2023 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 14.


You can pay online with all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) or via PayPal. Click here to email us if you would like to pay by corporate purchase order or check.

Special preorder and launch pricing discounts will be valid through April 3, 2023.

The 2023 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers is a definitive, nonpartisan resource that includes the most current information about pharmacy dispensing channels, third-party payers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), patients’ financial contributions, government regulations, and much more.

As always, we have updated all market and industry data with the most current information available, including our annual analyses of the market positions of the largest pharmacies, specialty pharmacies, and PBMs. Throughout the report, we have added new industry data, deepened our coverage of many topics, and added more trending information. Material that addresses COVID-19 and its impact on the pharmacy and PBM industries has been integrated into our analyses throughout the report.

This 2023 edition includes substantial new material. A new Section 12.5. addresses the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. In Subsection 12.5.1., we summarize the key provisions of the law that relate to the topics in this report. In Subsection 12.5.2., we highlight potential implications of the IRA for the drug channel.

There are 241 exhibits in the 2023 edition, compared with 216 in the 2022 edition. What’s more, 35 of the exhibits in the 2023 edition include new data sources that have not been used in previous editions. Download a free report overview for more details on the new sections and content.

The chart below illustrates the depth and breadth of the 2023 edition. The numbers indicate the report chapter that corresponds to, explains, and analyzes each channel flow.


Thank you for your interest in our work. If you have any questions before purchasing a license to the report, please email me. Enjoy!

Today’s guest post comes from Jim Longley, Head of Commercial, Pharma Manufacturer Solutions at GoodRx.

Jim discusses GoodRx Assist, a point-of-sale (POS) rebate program designed to help cash-paying patients start and stay on brand-name medication.

Click here to learn more about GoodRx Assist. Read on for Jim’s insights.

This Valentine's Day, what could be more romantic than a deep dive into the relationships between manufacturers of specialty drugs and the pharmacies they choose for their limited and exclusive specialty pharmacy networks.

Below, we rely on a unique database to provide you with some never-before-published benchmarking data on manufacturer-defined networks for 290 specialty drugs.

As you’ll see, a typical network contains only five specialty pharmacies. However, this average disguises substantial variability in network size. More than one in four specialty products have an exclusive network, while some have as many as 25 participants.

Manufacturers almost always say “be mine” to pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) affiliated partners, but they also swipe right with unaffiliated specialty pharmacies. Alas, PBM and plan strategies can still make smaller pharmacies feel lonesome.