Drugs from AbbVie and Gilead given the elbow by Express Scripts

8 August 2018

The USA’s leading pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) has published its list of 2019 National Preferred Formulary exclusions.

There are some high-profile exclusions in the list from Express Scripts, which again takes the opportunity to lay the blame for high drug prices in the USA at pharma companies, some of which have pointed at the role of PBMs in pricing.

In total, there are 48 new exclusions including 22 that have generic alternatives and 11 specialty drugs for which a lower-cost branded alternative or biosimilar is available and 12 instances of brand-to-brand competition where the higher-priced treatment has been excluded.

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