Due to rising costs of asthma and COPD, US managed care organizations will be forced to tighten formularies, says new report

Due to the rising costs of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) drugs, managed care organization pharmacy directors in the USA will tighten their formularies, according to a new report from HealthLeaders-InterStudy and Fingertip Formulary.

According to the report, titled Formulary Advantages in Asthma and COPD, the majority of surveyed pharmacy directors expect asthma and COPD drug prices to increase over the next five years by an average of 3% annually and believe they can implement tightened formulary strategies to slow down this trend.

The arrival of generics and branded generics may lead managed care organizations to include only the highest-rebating therapy on Tier 2 and shift other medications within a drug class to Tier 3 or exclude them from their formulary altogether. Novel branded long-acting beta-2 agonists and inhaled corticosteroid (LABA/ICS) combination therapies are expected to launch in 2013-2014 and will generate enough competition to spur the use of higher rebates for tier placement.