January 1 RxAdvocate January, 2024 — Newsletter
January Stories:
- Drug Prices on the Rise
- Recent Study of Wegovy in Heart Failure Patients
- National Blood Donor Month
- Employee Spotlight
Commonly in January and July, many manufacturers increase their list drug prices. Companies such as Pfizer, Sanofi and Takeda are raising prices on more than 500 drug doses and formulations in January 2024. This is in line with previous years, with 452 price hikes as of January 1, 2023, and a high of 602 on January 1, 2021.
Industry standard is to keep increases at 10% or below with median price increases remaining around 5% since 2019. While there are many price escalations occurring, manufacturers are lowering some prices to avoid paying penalties under a provision of the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. The provision forces drug manufacturers to pay substantial rebates to Medicaid if drug price increases outpace inflation—which frequently occur. Price decreases are expected primarily on insulin products.
Semaglutide is an injectable medication currently marketed as both Ozempic and Wegovy, which have been approved for use in diabetes and weight loss, respectively. The manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, has been investigating other uses for this medication and recently published a study showing improved benefits in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction when taking Semaglutide.
More than 6 million Americans currently have heart failure and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction represents over 50% of the overall cases. With the aging US population, this prevalence is expected to continue to increase and create additional burden to our health care system. The study followed 529 patients for 52 weeks and showed significant improvements in patient’s clinical symptoms of heart failure, as well as weight loss. If these medications are approved for additional indications, the cost burden to plans will continue to increase for this drug class for the foreseeable future.
January is National Blood Donor Month
More than 50 years ago, it was declared that January would be National Blood Donor Month. The winter season is known to be an extremely hard time to maintain a sufficient blood supply. Help save lives by donating your blood this month, if eligible.
According to the FDA, every two seconds, someone in the U.S needs a blood transfusion. Donating blood can help save the lives of people who are trauma victims and people with life-threatening illnesses. The entire process of donating blood can take about an hour. To be eligible to donate blood, you MUST meet these basic requirements:
• Have a pulse and blood pressure within acceptable limits.
• Have a normal temperature.
• Meet the minimum age requirement per applicable state law.
• Have an acceptable blood hemoglobin level.
• Be free of infections that can be transmitted through blood transfusion, or risk factors closely associated with exposure to such infections.
• Not have donated blood in the last eight weeks.
If you are interested in donating blood this month, please check out the resources listed below to prepare.
How to Donate Blood & What to Expect:
Employee Spotlight!
We are excited to announce the promotion of David Gaytan to Senior Strategic Account Executive! David has been instrumental to the account team through his willingness to take on projects and his leadership to others.
David Gaytan has been with RxConnection since May 2021. Thanks for all of your hard work, David!
Shout out to Emily King who recently got promoted from Account Manager to Strategic Account Executive! Emily joined RxConnection in April 2023 and has done a great job managing her internal and external responsibilities.
We are excited to watch Emily grow in this new role!
Contact us
Orlando.Neal@rxconnectionllc.com