A data-driven look at the Medicare Part B and Part D drugs that might qualify for the “small biotech” exemption from drug price negotiation in the Inflation Reduction Act.

In just two years, six new pharmacy benefit companies entered the marketplace, an almost nine percent increase. Today there are 73 full-service PBMs in operation. This demonstrates that the marketplace is not only diverse but becoming more competitive over time.

Given all the recent attention around pharmacy benefit companies and prescription drug costs, I thought it would be helpful to create a primer of what exactly a pharmacy benefit company is and does.

Recent small fluctuations year-to-year in the number of independent pharmacies has not dramatically shifted the independent pharmacy market and continues to foster a stable market.

It seems that some have been tossing around the word fact lately when they really mean opinion. Facts are things that we have real evidence to support, not simply statements we want to be true. PBMs work to provide patients

With a nod to Dickens given that it’s the holidays, I’ve been thinking about biosimilars past, present and future lately. In that holiday spirit, even though the parallels aren’t perfect to the classic holiday story, let’s look at the biosimilar

I have been the Head of the Research Team at PCMA, representing the pharmacy benefit industry, for nearly four years. And while it is part of my job to research and write about the clinical care activities of pharmacy benefit

A recent paper from Dr. Casey Mulligan examines the services that PBMs provide, estimating they create $145 billion in value to society annually. This value translates into a 7:1 return on investment each year.

PCMA is releasing ten years of independent and chain retail pharmacy count data for every state. The number of independent retail pharmacies nationwide increased 8% over the last ten years, and 1.2% over the last five years, suggesting a stable marketplace.

Over the last five years, the marketplace for independent pharmacies has experienced small fluctuations from year-to-year sometimes gaining stores, sometimes losing stores. These recent fluctuations in the overall number of stores have not dramatically shifted the independent pharmacy market.

Thanks to PBMs’ efforts to give patients an incentive to use them and pharmacies an incentive to purchase them at the lowest prices, generics are widely available and affordable for hundreds of millions of Americans.

Using data from CMS, we see increases in the average plan contract-level beneficiary adherence to hypertension medication. Gains in adherence translates to real people staying on their medications and having better health outcomes.

This blog introduces a new series of blog posts that will look at interesting trends using the CMS’s historical Part D Star Ratings data, focusing on four measures of prescription drug adherence.

New report from the Congressional Budget Office highlights the value of PBMs in keeping net drug costs low for payers and patients.

Pharmacy Benefit Managers reduce prescription drug costs for patients and use innovative technology to help patients get their prescriptions and lead healthier lives.

High spending on prescription drugs with both orphan and non-orphan indications suggest potential misuse of Orphan Drug Act designations.

Using a gold-standard pharmacy dataset from the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) and a transparent methodology, PCMA produces credible research with a clear conclusion: there are more independent pharmacies now than any time over the last decade.

Paying pharmacies more for dispensing medications will raise prescription drug costs without improving value.

Biosimilars play an important role in lowering net costs.

PBMs leverage competition between drugs to create savings for patients.

Patent thickets are a drug manufacturer’s strategy that keeps competitor products off the market and reduces PBMs’ ability to negotiate savings.