Our news-laden summer is ending. Time to pack away your bathing suit, send the kids back to school, and cherish these curated curiosities that I combed from the Drug Channels coastline: Aetna’s latest white bagging plan: Saving money or shifting costs? 340B covered entities are still not sharing discounts with needy patients PBM-affiliated private label biosimilars and their pricing double standard UnitedHealth Group’s 2,694 subsidiaries: too big to manage? P.S. Join my nearly 65,000 Link...| Drug Channels
During my recent video webinar—What’s Next for Retail Pharmacy: Data, Debate, and Disruption—Antonio Ciaccia of 46brooklyn Research joined me to explore the data, trends, and strategic shifts driving a major shakeout in the retail pharmacy sector. In the short video excerpt below, I break down five key economic forces putting intense pressure on U.S. drugstores. This clip offers just a glimpse of our broader conversation, which also covered PBMs, wholesalers, the evolving competitive la...| Drug Channels
Here are five guidelines to help employers balance health outcomes and financial responsibility to ensure that GLP-1 coverage is effective, affordable, and aligned with improved health and workforce well-being for employees and their families.| MedCity News
It’s time for Drug Channels’ annual update on drug pricing trends at the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers. This year’s review includes the following nine companies: Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, Takeda, Teva, and UCB. You can find links to each company’s data below. These data highlight divergent trends reshaping the gross-to-net bubble: Rebates, discounts, and other fees reduced the selling prices of brand-name...| Drug Channels
Is the gross-to-net bubble—the ever-widening gap between brand-name drug sales at list prices and their net revenues after rebates and discounts—finally beginning to deflate? Drug Channels Institute (DCI) estimates that the gross-to-net reductions for all brand-name drugs reached $356 billion in 2024, a 7% increase over the previous year. Yet despite this record total, the bubble expanded at the slowest rate in at least a decade. In our analysis below, we highlight five key forces driving...| Drug Channels
The 2025 launch of biosimilars to Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara (ustekinumab) marks another turning point in pharmacy benefit dynamics. But unlike the chaotic rollout of Humira biosimilars, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) came prepared. Private label strategies, aggressive pricing, and exclusive formulary deals have transformed what might have been a slow-crawling biosimilar introduction into a full-on pricing war. As with Humira, the reality of biosimilar economics is far messier—and more...| Drug Channels
Happy 249th birthday, America! Before you launch your July 4 festivities, Drug Channels humbly offers some fact-based fireworks to heal our troubled nation: Where the Rebates Really Go Another Year of Explosive Growth for the 340B Program IRA Fallout for Seniors’ Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs Most-Favored-Nation Pricing’s Shaky Legal Foundations Plus, Mark Cuban's blunt take on why CEOs fuel the PBM status quo. P.S. Join my nearly 64,000 LinkedIn followers for daily links to neat stuff, along ...| Drug Channels
This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for today’s live video webinar: What’s Next for Retail Pharmacy: Data, Debate, and Disruption. I’ll be joined by special guest Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn Research, and President of 3 Axis Advisors. Click here to see the original post from March 2025. --- Last week, President Trump signed yet another executive order, this time promising to make healthcare pricing more transparent. While this marks another federal push ...| Drug Channels
This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for tomorrow's live video webinar: What’s Next for Retail Pharmacy: Data, Debate, and Disruption. I’ll be joined by special guest Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn Research, and President of 3 Axis Advisors. Click here to see the original post from April 2025. --- It's time for Drug Channels’ annual update of vertical integration among insurers, PBMs, specialty pharmacies, and healthcare services within U.S. drug channels. A...| Drug Channels
This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for Friday’s live video webinar: What’s Next for Retail Pharmacy: Data, Debate, and Disruption. I’ll be joined by special guest Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn Research, and President of 3 Axis Advisors. Click here to see the original post from April 2025. --- Drug Channels Institute’s (DCI’s) latest analysis reveals that PBM-affiliated specialty pharmacies continue to dominate the dispensing of specialty drugs. DCI ha...| Drug Channels
This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for Friday’s live video webinar: What’s Next for Retail Pharmacy: Data, Debate, and Disruption. I’ll be joined by special guest Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn Research, and President of 3 Axis Advisors. Click here to see the original post from March 2025. --- Three’s still company in the world of pharmacy benefit managers. For 2024, nearly 80% of all equivalent prescription claims were processed by three familiar compan...| Drug Channels
This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for Friday’s live video webinar: What’s Next for Retail Pharmacy: Data, Debate, and Disruption. I’ll be joined by special guest Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn Research, and President of 3 Axis Advisors. Click here to see the original post from March 2025. --- Next week, Drug Channels Institute (DCI) will release our 2025 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers. It’s the 16th edition of our popul...| Drug Channels
The 340B Drug Pricing Program has emerged as a growing source of profits for pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Drug Channels Institute’s latest exclusive analysis of the 2025 market reveals a highly concentrated market structure increasingly dominated by a handful of major players: About 32,000 pharmacy locations—nearly 60% of the entire U.S. pharmacy industry—function as contract pharmacies for the hospitals and federal grantees that participate in the 340B program. The ...| Drug Channels
An author of the Affordable Care Act explores what the federal push to lower prescription drug prices could do—and what it may be missing.| HR Executive
CVS Caremark, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the country, agreed to pay at least $45 million to the state of Illinois to settle| STAT