Q&A: What the Most-Favored-Nation Drug Pricing Executive Order Means for Community Pharmacy
Ronna Hauser, PharmD, Senior Vice President of Policy & Pharmacy Affairs at NCPA, provides insights into President Trump’s most recent executive order regarding manufacturer drug prices.
With the signing of the Most-Favored-Nation drug policy through an executive order on Monday, President Trump’s most recent action in the pharmaceutical market has other drug supply chain entities scrambling to understand how it will impact them. While uncertainty and skepticism are following closely behind this ongoing narrative, Trump’s order could be the first step toward a major shift in pharmacy and in adjacent industries.1
As experts continue to seek further information to understand how this will impact the pharmaceutical supply chain, some groups have applauded President Trump’s vow to make medications and overall patient care more accessible. One of those groups is the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), who believes that the existence of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the supply chain creates more damage than value.
“The president correctly pointed out that PBMs are the only link in the supply chain that produces nothing of value for patients,” said NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey, RPh, MBA.2 “They don’t research, develop, or manufacture life-saving drugs. They don’t diagnose, treat, or counsel patients. They aren’t an access point for life saving drugs and related health care needs that are embedded in their local communities.”
NCPA’s Senior Vice President of Policy & Pharmacy Affairs, Ronna Hauser, PharmD, joined Drug Topics to help us understand what the new executive order means for community pharmacies. | image credit: Eliya / stock.adobe.com
Drug Topics was recently joined by the NCPA’s Senior Vice President of Policy & Pharmacy Affairs, Ronna Hauser, PharmD, who provided further nuance to the executive order and what it means for the community pharmacy industry. Like many other experts, Hauser is skeptic on how manufacturers, pharmacists, and PBMs will react to the order. However, she does believe it may be a push in the right direction for making prescription drugs more affordable for all parties.
READ MORE: President Trump Signs Executive Order Significantly Decreasing US Drug Prices
Drug Topics: President Trump signed a similar executive order during his first term, but it was ultimately blocked by a federal judge. How is this most recent executive order different, and how do you expect it to play out this time?
Ronna Hauser: The most recent order is much broader and would go beyond drugs in Medicare Part B to include all Medicaid and Medicare and possibly commercial. We know that some groups are talking about pushing back against this order and question the authority of the president to implement such a program without congressional authority. Also, this order seems to say that manufacturers could sell direct to patients, which would likely bypass the PBM middlemen. Of course, NCPA supports the president continuing to focus on PBM middlemen and the way they artificially inflate the price of prescription drugs to pad their pockets. However, no part of this effort should bypass patient safety and effectiveness by going around the pharmacist.
Drug Topics: If everything with the executive order goes to plan, how will community pharmacies be affected once drug prices begin to go down?
Ronna Hauser: Although we don’t have the details we need to determine the exact impact on community pharmacies, there may be minimal impact or pharmacies could be in a similar position to implementation of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, where we buy the drug at a higher price while waiting to be “made whole” by the manufacturer to the new reference price, whatever that is. This could also lead to more improved opportunities to move to a cost-plus based model, which is a goal of NCPA.
READ MORE: Executive Order to Limit PBM Control, Lower Drug Costs
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