Order (Not) Ready. The National Community Pharmacists Association surveyed just under 500 independent pharmacy owners and the results are really interesting. Almost ¾ had not signed 2025 Part D pharmacy contracts as of about a month ago. Of those that dispense GLP-1 agonists, 96% lose money on them; it makes sense why 59% are thinking…
For most drugs, it is not IF but WHEN they will be negotiated by Medicare so if you thought you could ignore guidance coming out this week, you were wrong. Everyone on the pharma side needs to be thinking of how the Inflation Reduction Act impacts them, even if you’re early on in the pipeline…
It’s an Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) hangover kind of week. Last week the first Medicare negotiated prices for 2026 were announced and this week is the “what does this mean?” week with everyone catching up and chiming in. What I wrote last week stands but if you want another review, Health Affairs/KFF has you covered.…
Today I’m doing a presentation for patient advocates on the Initial Price Applicability Year (IPAY) Guidance 2027 that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services put out a few weeks ago. I thought you might enjoy the overview as well. Long story short – the guidance is focused on the Medicare negotiation process for 2027.…
Back to back. Arnold Ventures put out the latest anti-pharma talking points (h/t Brian Reid) and here were two back to back – Here’s the problem, it really isn’t about the cost of drugs. I mean you could take that drug price and reduce it 98% and the 25% cost share would still be too…
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a little fuzzy on the details of how Medicare negotiated prices get into the system. It says that pharmacies need to be able to purchase at this price but is silent about the mechanics. This stuff is hard. But gosh sometimes I feel like the implementation could be so…