Tools Payers Are Using to Control Drug Costs, per Ellen Feeney of Highmark | 2023 PBMI Annual National Conference

Thompson, the president of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, said if that 20% of the market changes way it deals with PBMs “it will change the market, it will change the conversation, it will change the practices of key players.”

Thompson, the president and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, said rebates and pass through are just the “tip of the iceberg” of the misalignment between employers and PBMs that disadvantages employers.

Panelists at the 2023 PBMI Annual National Conference mentioned post-marketing studies and changing the mind-set about what a prescription entails.

Mike Baldzicki, chief commercial officer, Premier Pharmacy Services, shared some takeaways from his presentation on the rare-ultra orphan disease market and its therapies at the 2023 PBMI Annual National Conference in Orlando.

There is a huge opportunity for savings from the recently launched Humira biosimilars and others expected to reach the market in the next few years. But plans and PBMs will need to step into the role that pharmaceutical manufacturers once did in supporting patients and prescribers.

Ozempic (semaglutide) is second only to Humira (adalimumab) in sales, according to the IQVIA vice president of industry relations and a frequent speaker at conference. And for newly launched drugs, sales figures for Mounjaro (tirzepatide) are second only to what they were for Harvoni (ledipasvir and sofosbuvir), a hepatitis C antiviral, when the hepatitis C antivirals were new.