This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I put the finishing touches on DCI’s 2025-26 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors. Click here to see the original post from July 2025. ICYMI, Express Scripts will boot the reference products from its 2026 formulary, but will cling to its biosimilar pricing double standard. --- The 2025 launch of biosimilars to Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara (ustekinumab) marks another turning point in pharmacy benefit dyn...| Drug Channels
Pharmacy services administrative organizations (PSAOs), which operate between pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and smaller pharmacies, are among the most mysterious—and misunderstood—intermediaries in our complex U.S. drug channel. Adding to the mystery: the largest PSAOs are owned by the three multi-billion dollar, public companies that also dominate pharmaceutical distribution—Cencora, Cardinal Health, and McKesson. These companies sit atop the Fortune 500 list and distribute more tha...| Drug Channels
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
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