Drug Trend Report 2020: Staying ahead of the evolving pharmacy landscape

It’s our job to be forward-thinking and help our clients prepare for marketplace dynamics. We closely monitor evolving and emerging issues.

• Biosimilars and interchangeability: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued guidance in late 2020 clarifying procedures for products to be designated as interchangeable biosimilars. Interchangeability accelerates access to lower-cost biosimilars and could be a game-changer in addressing specialty trend.
• ERISA Protection: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) helped protect clients’ plan designs for decades. Now we’re seeing state legislators attempting to erode those protections. Scaling back ERISA pre-emption limits the ability to optimally design benefits and will eventually cost our clients more over time.
• Calls for transparency: Many of the people who are asking for “transparency” have different definitions and sometimes motives. To us, transparency means aligning our incentives with our clients and providing information necessary for clients to make plan design decisions or better understand our recommendations.