Prescription Drugs

Older adults with behavioral health disorders often experience worse health and functional outcomes, have higher rates of emergency department visits, use more medications, and have higher health care costs than those without a behavioral health disorder. There is need for a greater understanding of the extent to which older adults experience behavioral health disorders.

The 2025-2028 Draft Action Plan for Addressing Shortages of Medical Products and Critical Foods and Strengthening the Resilience of Medical Product and Critical Food Supply Chains (“Draft Action Plan”) presents coordinated and strategic actions that the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS,” or “Department”) plans to take from 2025 through 2028.

The U.S. has a number of policies related to drug pricing, affordability, and availability. To encourage manufacturers to innovate with new therapies, patent policy rewards the creation of new branded medicines. As those patents come to an end, generic drug manufacturers may enter a market and seek to sell their products at lower prices than the competing brand drugs.

The U.S. supply chain for provider-administered outpatient drugs involves several entities, including drug manufacturers, wholesalers, healthcare providers (e.g., outpatient facilities, hospital pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and standalone clinics), group purchasing organizations (GPOs), payers, and beneficiaries.

This study, commissioned by ASPE, uses multiple data sources to 1) assess trends in pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions (M&As) over the 2010-2023 period; 2) evaluate characteristics of drugs involved in M&As, and 3) examine the effects of M&As on the pharmaceutical supply chain.

The report, "Analysis of Drug Shortages, 2018-2023" provides additional information on the data, methods, and findings. Below are the key findings.KEY POINTS

The U.S. supply chain for prescription drugs is highly complex, involving several intermediaries between drug manufacturers and patients. This analysis estimates the percentages of drug expenditures that are allocated to each stakeholder in the supply chain, including manufacturers.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes many provisions that aim to reduce out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs covered under Medicare Part D. In 2024, cost-sharing in the final phase of the Part D benefit, the catastrophic coverage phase, was eliminated.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) changes the way Medicare pays for prescription drugs. These changes will impact various stakeholders, including Medicare, Medicare enrollees, drug manufacturers, and others.

March-in authority allows the federal government to grant licenses on privately owned patents for inventions developed with federal funding provided certain statutory requirements are met. It was designed to ensure that the benefits of the American taxpayers’ investment in research and development are reasonably accessible to the public.