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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
