Financial Strains in Pharmacy Leading to New Clinical Service Models

Due to the financial strains pharmacies have faced from declining reimbursements, many practices across the country are seeking alternative clinical services to improve pharmacy sustainability.

While it did not particularly explore the impacts on pharmacies and their businesses, IQVIA’s Understanding the Use of Medicines in the US 2025 report dove deep into how medications are being used in the US. From patients’ out-of-pocket costs to the way insurers design their benefit plans, the team at IQVIA updates the pharmacy industry annually with the tools they need to plan in an evolving drug market.

“We produce this report every year because the use of medicines in the US is not otherwise centrally reported,” Michael Kleinrock, lead director of research at IQVIA, told Drug Topics. “We're providing appropriate and helpful context from a whole range of stakeholder perspectives. For example, we title the report ‘The Use of Medicines,’ because we're focused on what happens, not necessarily purely financial aspects of it, which is often a topic of other reporting.”

In part 4 of our interview with Kleinrock, he provided insights into the trends in drug use and how they have the potential to impact pharmacy businesses. Other factors that aren’t financial, like the COVID-19 pandemic, have played key roles in pushing pharmacies to expand their services and bill for more clinical support on a day-to-day.

However, recent financial pressures and an unprecedented amount of pharmacy closures have placed many storefronts in a dire situation.

“With over 330 million people, with an aging population, with a pandemic in the last 5 years, with a number of new medicines and shifts in available treatment modalities, what's changing? What's the same? What are the trends?” continued Kleinrock. “Keeping that macro perspective, that overview, on a market this complex really helps you then dive into specific topics you're interested in.”

Stay tuned for the full-length version of our interview with Kleinrock, set to go live on Over the Counter this Thursday afternoon.

READ MORE: The Current Drivers in Medication Use, Spending

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Reference
Understanding the use of medicines in the U.S. 2025. IQVIA. 2025. Accessed July 14, 2025. https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports-and-publications/reports/understanding-the-use-of-medicines-in-the-us-2025