Treating the drug pricing perception problem

Ben LinkSeptember 24, 2024Brand drugs, List prices, WAC, OhioHealth, Opdivo, chargemaster, Average Sales Price, ASP, CMS, WVU Hospitals

Money from Sick People Part IV: Paying a Premium for Drug Pricing Irregularity

Ben LinkJuly 19, 2024List prices, WAC, Insulin, Lantus, PBM, Humalog, Rutledge v PCMA, diabetes, Inflation Reduction Act, Apidra, Novolog, Levemir, Medicare, Part D

Is 2024 the start of a brave new world in drug pricing?

Ben LinkJanuary 12, 2024WAC, AWP, PBM, Brand drugs, Generic drugs, NADAC, CVS, Express Scripts, Medicaid, Mark Cuban, Insulin, Flovent, Price increases, List prices, Rebates, American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, AMP

How PBMs distort and undermine specialty drug pricing guarantees

Ben LinkMay 10, 2023Specialty, WAC, AWP, specialty drugs, PBM, Brand drugs, Generic drugs, Effective rate, NADAC, Linda Cahn, CVS, Express Scripts, Optum, Emgality, Retevmo, Imatinib, Gleevec, Hyalgan, Medicaid, Medicare, Mark Cuban, Ohio

Brand drug launch prices: A game of perspective

Ben LinkMarch 9, 2023Rebates, Launch, drug prices, Brand drugs, Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare, Lyrica, WAC, Adbry, Firazyr, Zolgensma, Trikafta, CPI, List prices

Medicare hits $200 billion in gross drug spend: Who gets the blame?

Ben LinkApril 11, 2022Medicare, Part D, Brand drugs, Generic drugs, Specialty, DIR fees, Rebates, PBM, Eliquis, Revlimid, Xarelto, Januvia, Trulicity, Imbruvica, Lantus, Jardiance, Humira, Ibrance, NADAC, atorvastatin, WAC

Wreck-fidera: How Medicare Part D has hidden the benefits of generic competition for a blockbuster Multiple Sclerosis treatment

Ben LinkDecember 1, 2021Medicare, Copaxone, Teva, Rebates, Tecfidera, Biogen, Multiple Sclerosis, WAC, Mylan, NADAC, specialty drugs, Kaiser, CVS, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Anthem, Humana, Centene, DIR fees, AWP, Plan Finder

The Rise of the Drug Mix Empire

Ben LinkJanuary 2, 2021WAC, Brand drugs, List prices, Price increases, Medicaid, Launch

Drug price increases have slowed, but new analysis shows launch prices pushing costs into orbit

Recent reports have demonstrated that brand-name medication prices are not increasing at the same rate as prior years. We’ve highlighted similar trends in our digging as well. While slowing list price increases can be helpful, and certainly understandable given the amount of coverage drug prices have gotten over the previous year, it misses one of the key points within the brand drug marketplace. Brand-name drug cost pressures have less and less to do with year-over-year price increases and more to do with the launch prices of new brand name medications when they initially come to market.

So naturally, we saw an opportunity for a visualization to shed some light on launch prices. This report introduces the latest visualization added to the 46brooklyn toolkit - the 46brooklyn Drug Pricing Launchpad. Spoiler alert! Brand-name drug launch prices are rising aggressively. This is a problem for sure, but why its a problem may surprise you. This report will take you on a journey through the lifecycle of a drug, and illustrate how high pre-rebate list prices on brand-name drugs today become a profit opportunity for the supply chain off generic drugs in the future.