AMP is WAC (and other thoughts)
Latest posts and updates
ABOUT AMP is WAC
Average Manufacturer Price (AMP) is not equal to Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC), but it is close. And since the whole world of health policy and reimbursement is a bit WAC-y, that’s what we’re calling this update/blog part of the site. All of the opinions and thoughts presented here are our own and not the views of clients or affiliates.
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Caught my eye — 9/22/23
Read more: Caught my eye — 9/22/23Leave the gun, take the cannoli. House Energy and Commerce hearing on Medicare price negotiation gets feisty. Not often that the mafia comes up on the House floor but an interesting comparison of price negotiation and an offer they can’t refuse. I doubt Congressman Griffith (R-VA) and I agree on much politically but on this,…
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Contract(ing) 340B
Read more: Contract(ing) 340BLast week we covered 340B basics. If you missed it, here is a quick summary: There are hospitals, clinics, etc. that serve uninsured individuals. To help care for these patients, the 340B program requires pharmaceutical manufacturers (that wish to participate in the Medicaid program) to sell their products at a massive discount that the entities…
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Caught my eye — 9/15/23
Read more: Caught my eye — 9/15/23Suited up: The Department of Justice responded to Merck’s Medicare negotiation suit. It leaned into the argument that this is a negotiation. “Manufacturers that do not wish to make their drugs available at negotiated prices can avoid doing so by forgoing sales of the relevant drugs to Medicare beneficiaries— including by withdrawing from the Medicare…
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340B and all that jazz
Read more: 340B and all that jazzThis week Jazz Pharmaceuticals announced that they would no longer be doing bill to/ship to orders on EPIDIOLEX® to contract pharmacies. They became the 25th pharmaceutical manufacturer to place restrictions on 340B sales. By itself this is not huge news (24 companies did it before Jazz) but I also don’t think it should fall into…
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Caught my eye — 9/8/23
Read more: Caught my eye — 9/8/23Weight list: The rush for access to weight loss drugs is not just in the United States. 20,000 people were interested in Wegovy in Britain and the wait list (weight-list?) is long. Ozempic is in shortage there. Another story highlighted shortages for weight loss drugs in United Arab Emirates. Interestingly, each area in the UAE…
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Costs and Consequences
Read more: Costs and ConsequencesThe Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a sneaky piece of legislation. It sounds so promising with a cap on out-of-pocket (OOP) spending in Part D and really sticking it to Big Pharma. But does the legislation get us to the stated goal of lower drug prices and have outcomes (or consequences) that are worth the…
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Caught my eye — 9/1/23
Read more: Caught my eye — 9/1/23Caught my eye… a weekly catch-all of stuff that I found important. Obviously big news this week was the release of the Medicare drug negotiation lists for 2026. I wrote about it and, I also appreciated Scott Gottlieb’s tweets (Xs?) on it If not this, then what? GOP plans for healthcare: AstraZeneca’s suit against the…
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Huh, Insulin?
Read more: Huh, Insulin?Yesterday the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the list of drugs that they have selected as part of the initial year of Medicare drug price negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). These drugs will be negotiated over the next year with implementation of the prices to begin in 2026. And there…
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Quick take: Fun with numbers
Read more: Quick take: Fun with numbersThe 2026 list of Medicare negotiated drugs came out this morning and it’s a mad dash to dig in and get some sense of where this program might go. I imagine some companies (hi Astellas) are breathing a sigh of relief and others are glad they didn’t get hit worse. I found the information released…
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Let the games (almost) begin
Read more: Let the games (almost) beginOn Tuesday we are expecting to learn what are the first drugs that will be negotiated as part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA’s) 2026 Medicare negotiation program. I use the word negotiated loosely. Last fall I did a lot of work looking at Part D spending files and patent expiration dates and expectations for…
Latest news
- Caught my eye — 1/24/25
- Caught my eye — 1/16/25
- Caught my eye — 1/10/25
- Caught my eye — 12/20/24
- Nurturing the Potential of Biosimilars
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