Vizient Inc. recently released its July 2017 Drug Price Forecast, which provides pharmacy leaders and health system executives with insights on pricing and practice changes throughout the pharmaceutical industry.
According to Vizient, health systems should see a 7.61 percent average increase in price on pharmaceutical purchases made between Jan. 1, 2018 and Dec. 31, 2018. To reach that conclusion, Vizient focused its evaluation on pharmaceutical use in both hospital and non-acute settings.
“The latest Drug Price Forecast highlights numerous market dynamics that continue to contribute to rising pharmaceutical costs and exacerbate the challenge of managing health system pharmacy expenses,” Dan Kistner, senior vice president of pharmacy solutions for Vizient, said in a statement. “Pharmacy leaders – now more than ever – must be proactive and strategically plan to address these issues and implement cost-saving and quality optimization measures.”
Other highlights from the forecast report include the notion that biosimilars are at a tipping point, the idea of orphan drugs balancing patient benefits with extraordinary prices, and the fact that drug shortages are still unfortunately a problem in the United States marketplace.
The Drug Price Forecast used data from Vizient’s Pharmacy Program.
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