4 Things to know about the IQVIA 2018 and Beyond: Outlook and Turning Points report

We continue to see a deluge of data from government actuaries and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) showing a dramatic slowdown in medicine spending growth. Most recently, the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science released a report today that provides additional evidence to support the conclusion that the competitive market for medicines in the United States holds down costs.

Here are four things you should know about the “2018 and Beyond: Outlook and Turning Points” report:

1. Spending on medicines per person in the United States is projected to decline in 2018 and continue almost unchanged through 2022.
2. Prices for brand medicines are projected to increase just 2 to 5 percent over the next five years after accounting for negotiated discounts and rebates, even as a robust pipeline of new medicines are expected to reach patients.
3. U.S. brand medicine sales are expected to decrease by $105 billion between 2018 and 2022 due to expected competition from generics and biosimilars, with a $35 billion decline in brand sales in 2018 alone.  
4. Over the next five years, new forms of contracting are likely to expand. Nearly three times more outcomes-based contracts – innovative and flexible ways to pay for medicines that lower out-of-pocket costs and get patients access to the right treatments the first time – are expected to be announced.

Learn more at LetsTalkAboutCost.org.