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 — 10/6/23
Read more: Caught my eye — 10/6/23Patients driving change. I love this story because it involves Carl Schmid, patient groups and copay accumulators. Copay accumulators are when insurance does not allow pharmaceutical manufacturer contributions to count towards patient out-of-pocket spending calculations. Thanks to the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, the Diabetes Leadership Council and the Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition and their suit against…
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What is Value Anyway?
Read more: What is Value Anyway?A few weeks ago I watched novelist John Green get emotional in a YouTube video about the price of a tuberculosis test by Cepheid. The gist is that the TB test costs $10 while (likely) costing less than $5 to produce. There is acknowledgement that the product is “incredible, amazing, wonderous.” But it should be…
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Caught my eye — 9/29/23
Read more: Caught my eye — 9/29/23It’s not a vacation. Let’s start with federal employees; you deserve better. You often could get paid more elsewhere but you want to serve. And instead of saying thank you, Congress asks you to take a seat on the bench and (hopefully) get backpay. It feels awful and I am so sorry you have to…
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340B: All fun and games until $100B in value
Read more: 340B: All fun and games until $100B in valueI don’t know if anyone reading this has kids but, in my experience, my kid will start to stretch the boundary on behavior. Small at first. Then three weeks later I realize that everything has gone off the rails and I have to pull in the reigns. It feels like a rubber band that has…
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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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