Flash finding: Plan Finder leaves seniors hanging in their search for cheap prescription drugs

In our recent deep dive into the warped incentives in Medicare Part D that give rise to zombie brand drugs and excess costs for seniors and taxpayers, we noticed how helpful Medicare Plan Finder is in assisting seniors choose a health plan. However, we also found that it was less than helpful in assisting seniors minimize their out-of-pocket drug costs. Today’s Flash Finding highlights how Plan Finder makes it exceedingly difficult for anyone to know if they can save significant money on their prescription drugs.

Ben LinkAugust 17, 2020Plan Finder, Copaxone, Medicare, Kaiser Permanente

Medicare Part D is giving rise to zombie brand-drugs

Ben LinkAugust 12, 2020

Three months into COVID-19, and things are looking down (in a good way)

CMS has released their latest round of drug pricing data, giving us further insights into how the prescription drug supply chain is responding to the new challenges and demands presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. While many expected the pressures to cause massive shortages and price increases, the data shows that while shortages have definitely jumped, this new CMS drug pricing data shows that not only have generic drug prices stayed in check, but they actually appear to be deflating! But of course, the details matter, and we’ve got them for you.

Ben LinkJuly 28, 2020NADAC, Medicaid, Generic, COVID, Methylphenidate, Concerta, Ritalin, dexamethasone, Plaquenil, Hydroxychloroquine, ADHD, Zoloft, sertraline

Flash finding: Assessing the concentration risk of the Mylan/Greenstone marriage

Mylan recently announced that its shareholders had approved its merger with Pfizer’s Upjohn, to form a new company called Viatris. One asset within Upjohn is Greenstone, a generic manufacturer that focuses on authorized generics. Given the news of the merger, we were interested to better understand the concentration risk on the U.S. generic marketplace by the marriage of Mylan and Greenstone. The good news is that we already have a tool that gives us an idea of who has what market share (using Medicaid data) for every drug. While not a complete assessment of our nation’s generic manufacturer market share, the Medicaid data provides a substantive snapshot of the overall market distribution for the production of each generic drug. Here’s what we found.

Ben LinkJuly 6, 2020Mylan, Viatris, Upjohn, Greenstone, Pfizer, Medicaid, Generic

Two months into COVID-19, and generic drug prices remain in check

CMS has released their latest round of drug pricing data – this one reflecting price changes from arguably the peak of COVID-19 hysteria and supply chain pressure. The release gives us long-anticipated insight into how the drug supply chain is operating as it is pushed up against the wall by unprecedented disruption. Surveys have shown that Americans believe that the pandemic will yield drug price increases from manufacturers, and given the growing number of shortages, who can blame them? Well, the CMS data shows that everyone may be in for a surprise: overall, generic drug prices don’t appear to be budging.

Ben LinkJune 25, 2020NADAC, Medicaid, Generic, COVID, Suboxone, Buprenorphine-Naloxone, Zytiga, Abiraterone, Tacrolimus, Prograf

Flash finding: Generic Daraprim manufacturers ride Pharma Bro pricing coattails

Remember Daraprim? How about “pharma-bro”? Those were the good ole’ days when you could increase the price of a drug from $13.50 per pill (actually, it started under $1 when Turing acquired it) to $750 per pill and call yourself “Robin Hood.” We all know how this story ended. Martin Shkreli is now serving a seven-year prison term for securities fraud. His appeal to be released from prison to help research a COVID-19 cure was recently denied. The end? Not so fast! Generic Daraprim hit the market in March. meaning competition should bring “bad news” to the legacy brand manufacturer, right? Cheap prices for all, right? Wrong. In our latest Flash Finding, we started digging into the facts. Here’s what you need to know – in under 500 words.

Ben LinkMay 25, 2020AWP, WAC, Daraprim, Pyrimethamine, Generic

The prescription drug supply chain's sky is not falling ... yet

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic pulled the rug out from under our lives, us nerds in the drug pricing world have been anxiously anticipating what its impact on the prescription drug supply chain will be. This week, CMS released its latest monthly round of prescription drug cost information, which gives us our first bits of insight of how the virus and its stresses on the supply chain are impacting generic drug costs. While it’s too early to tell, the first indicators show that prices are slightly moving northwards, but in general, it doesn’t seem close to being the disaster that many anticipated.

Ben LinkMay 21, 2020NADAC, Medicaid, Generic, COVID, Naproxen, Hydroxychloroquine, Metformin

Flash finding: 28% of all COVID-19 drug trials involve chloroquine products

For the past few weeks, we have been tracking the number of COVID-19 trials on ClinicalTrials.gov, with specific emphasis on drug trials. As of Tuesday, the week-over-week number of drug trials increased by 101 to a total of 431, and the number of different active ingredients undergoing trials for COVID-19 is now up to 190. When digging into those numbers, we found that the chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine craze appears to have spilled over to the research community, launching 124 trials on these two drugs – a staggering 28% of the total drug trials, as of today.

Ben LinkApril 30, 2020COVID, Clinical Trial, Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine, Remdesivir

Drug prices shift as COVID-19 begins making its mark on the supply chain

For the past 20 months, in the pre-COVID-19 era, we’ve released a monthly report called “What’s Happening To Generic Drug Prices,” where we track month-by-month price changes from the CMS National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) survey of community pharmacy invoice acquisition costs for prescription drugs. This month, we still are providing that update, but in digging through the latest round of drug pricing data from CMS, we spotted some very interesting drug pricing movement on generic drugs, and one massive increase on a drug that was recently being tested for emergency use for treatment of COVID-19 patients. Check out our latest drug pricing report for important updates on the latest drug price changes, plus an updated NADAC Packed Bubble Chart and Abnormal Drug Price Increase Tracker.

Ben LinkApril 23, 2020NADAC, Medicaid, Generic, COVID, Naproxen, Hydroxychloroquine, Prograf, Tacrolimus, Naprosyn, Mytesi