
U.S. prescription market: market share of pharmacy benefit managers 2021
Pharmacy benefit managers
Pharmacy benefit managers are responsible for the operation and distribution of pharmaceuticals to patients and pharmacies. They are also responsible for the negotiation of rebates and processing of insurance claims from patients and pharmacies. Among pharmaceutical distributors in the U.S., chain stores distributed the largest value of pharmaceuticals in recent years. However, data suggests that pharmacy benefit managers have the highest gross profit among all actors in the U.S. drugs supply chain.
Generic drugs
In recent years, the growth of the generic prescriptions volume in the U.S. market has remained fairly stable with growth in all years. With stable growth in generics, the number of brand name medicines that were excluded from pharmacy benefit manager formularies in recent years had been on the rise. Generic drugs are useful to the consumer in that, in many cases, they provide a cheaper (but equal) alternative to brand name drugs.