Category: Research/Reports

340B Sales Growth Rate Slowed in 2021, the First Year of 340B Contract Pharmacy Restrictions

April 12, 2022 Tom Mirga, Editor at Large Views

Point of purchase scanner at pharmacy checkout

340B drug sales grew at a slower rate in 2021, the first year of 340B contract pharmacy restrictions, IQVIA reports.

Prescription drug sales at 340B-discounted prices grew 15.9% year-on-year from 2020 to 2021, drug industry consulting and contract research firm IQVIA reports, an annual growth rate below that for the two preceding years.

Last year, IQVIA reported that 340B sales

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Influential Drug Cost-Effectiveness Organization Endorses Partially Lifting 340B Orphan Drug Exclusion

April 7, 2022 Tom Mirga, Editor at Large Views

Policymakers should consider narrowing the 340B orphan drug exemption, ICER said today in a new report.

The exclusion of 340B pricing for some hospitals on drugs to treat orphan conditions and diseases could be partially eliminated to slow “the rapid growth in approved rare disease treatments” and “their cumulative affordability to the health system,” an influential

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CMS Projects that Drug Spending and Drug Prices Will Keep Rising Through 2030

March 31, 2022 Tom Mirga, Editor at Large Views

CMS predicts that U.S. retail prescription drug spending will grow 4.3% this year, with growth accelerating to 4.7% next year and to 5.1% in 2024.

Federal actuaries predict retail prescription drug spending in the United States will grow 4.3% this year, with growth accelerating to 4.7% next year and to 5.1% in 2024.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary

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Conservative Massachusetts Think Tank Slams State’s 340B Hospitals over Charity Care and Calls for Reform

March 31, 2022 Tom Mirga, Editor at Large Views

title page of Pioneer Institute white paper on 340B drug discounts

Charity care at five Massachusetts hospital groups declined at a time that 340B sales to the hospitals were rising, a new report by a conservative state think tank says. The state hospital association says the report distorts the 340B program.

Charity care has been declining significantly in some Massachusetts hospital systems, raising “a significant policy issue for the 340B program,” a free-market-oriented Massachusetts think tank whose donors include pharmaceutical manufacturers says in a new report.

The state hospital association said

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Economists Say 340B Hospital and Grantee Entities Use Contract Pharmacy for Different Reasons

March 15, 2022 Tom Mirga, Editor at Large Views

A new study finds that contract pharmacy growth patterns differ between 340B hospital and non-hospital entities.

Contract pharmacy growth patterns differ between 340B hospital and non-hospital entities, suggesting they may use 340B differently and should be subject to different 340B rules, new research in the American Journal of Managed Care concludes.

The authors, who previously have

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New JAMA Study Casts Doubt on CMS Reason for Cutting Hospitals’ Medicare Part B Payments for 340B Drugs

February 25, 2022 Tom Mirga, Editor at Large Views

screenshot of JAMA Open access article about 340B

New research “raises doubt” about a major CMS reason for slashing hospitals’ Medicare Part B reimbursement for drugs purchased through the 340B program by almost one-third.

New research published in JAMA Network Open “raises doubt” about a major U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) justification for slashing hospitals’ Medicare Part B reimbursement for drugs purchased through the 340B program by almost one-third, the study’s

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Democratic Senator’s Illness Stalls Action on Drug Pricing Indefinitely

February 10, 2022 Tom Mirga, Editor at Large & Ron Shinkman Views

Sen. Ben Ray Lujan's (D-N.M.) recent stroke and absence makes it even less likely that Congress will pass Democratic drug pricing legislation any time soon.

Prospects for passage of Democratic drug pricing legislation as part of the Build Back Better (BBB) Act dimmed again last week with news that Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) had a stroke on Jan 27.

Lujan’s chief of staff …

ICER Says Four Drugs Are Cost-Effective in Keeping COVID-19 Patients Out of Hospitals

February 8, 2022 Ron Shinkman Views

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review has tentatively concluded that four drugs have demonstrated effectiveness and value in reducing hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients.

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has issued a draft report concluding four drugs have demonstrated effectiveness and value in reducing hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients. The independent nonprofit group evaluates prescription drugs and medical treatments’ cost effectiveness

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Hospitals Taking Heavy Losses Due to Drug Company Limits on 340B Pricing, Survey Says

January 27, 2022 Tom Mirga, Editor at Large Views

340B Health says a new survey of its members shows 340B hospitals “are losing significant resources” due to drug companies’ conditions on 340B pricing when covered entities use contract pharmacies.

UPDATE Friday, Jan. 28, 2022—This story was updated to include comments by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA.)

340B hospitals “are losing significant resources” due to drug companies’ conditions on 340B pricing when covered entities use contract pharmacies, according

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PhRMA Says More than Half of Pharmacy and Provider Profits on Brand Drug Sales Come Through 340B

January 11, 2022 Tom Mirga, Editor at Large Views

New research looked at the prices 340B-enrolled pediatric hospitals charged for pediatric oncology drugs.

More than half (52%) of the $81 billion that U.S. pharmacies and health care providers collected in 2020 in reimbursement from payers for brand-name prescription drugs came through pharmacy and provider participation in the 340B program, up from 14% of

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