COVID-era generic drug price changes: No news is good news

CMS has released their latest round of drug pricing data – another peek into the functionality of the prescription drug supply chain amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As we highlighted in the June and July NADAC reports, generic drug prices are weathering the pandemic storm. In fact, not only have the predictions of massive increases failed to come to fruition, but instead, generic drug prices are falling. This month continues that trend. Our latest report digs into the numbers using the latest NADAC drug pricing data from CMS.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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