Specialty Pharmacy, Explained: Growth, Pricing and Industry Economics

In this webinar about specialty pharmacy, panelists Luke Greenwalt, MBA, of IQVIA and a member of the Managed Healthcare Executive editorial advisory board; Ray Tancredi, RPh, MBA, of Asembia; and Ramesh Srinivasan, Ph.D., M.S., of ing discussed emerging market trends in the specialty pharmacy sector and healthcare policy changes shaping its future. They highlighted takeaways from the Asembia AXS26 Summit meeting in Las Vegas in late April 2026, which included Greenwalt’s framing of the U.S. pharmaceutical market as entering a new era of “mega-blockbuster” drugs that generate $5 billion in annual sales, potentially crowding out spending on other drugs. Tancredi noted that the Asembia conference has evolved to become a meeting about healthcare more broadly, not just specialty pharmacy. Srinivasan spoke about a sense of complexity, urgency and uncertainty. “All the stakeholders are looking to navigate what feels like a pretty foggy crystal ball,” Srinivasan said. The conversation during the hourlong discussion webinar touched on a wide range of topics, from direct-to-consumer sales to the pricing consequences of a large number of brand-name drugs losing patent protection in the next several years to interconnected effects of PBM reform, most-favored drug pricing and IRA price negotiation.