Prescription Drugs & Other Medical Products

The ASPE issue brief examines the research and development cost and duration associated with bringing novel vaccines to the U.S. market. The results indicate that bringing a novel vaccine to the U.S. market costs an estimated $886.8 million on average, and its development process lasts 10 years.

In 2020, 53 million adults in the United States had a mental health condition and 40 million people ages 12 and older had a substance use disorder (SUD). The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) exacerbated mental health conditions and SUDs at a time when access to in-person care was restricted due to safety concerns.

The U.S. behavioral health (BH) workforce faces significant shortages and distribution disparities, hindering access to quality care and worsening health outcomes. A comprehensive, centralized database of BH providers is vital for advancing patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR), comparative effectiveness research (CER), and evidence-based policymaking.

The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which Medicaid providers who deliver behavioral health services shifted their practices to mostly tele-behavioral health services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center is in the process of developing the Medicare $2 Drug List (M2DL) Model. This would allow Part D plan sponsors to offer a standardized list of generic drugs for a copayment of $2 or less for a month’s supply that would not be subject to prior authorization, quantity limits, or other utilization management restrictions.

In this Report, we matched a sample of Part D drugs and biological products that had price changes between January 2011 and October 2023 to FDA’s January 2023 list of drug shortages database. Then we analyzed price changes that occurred before and after the shortage, overall and by select drug characteristics of interest.

In this Report, we matched a sample of Part B drugs and biological products that had price changes between January 2011 and October 2023 with the FDA’s January 2023 list of drug shortages database. Then we analyzed price changes that occurred before and after the shortage, overall and by select drug characteristics of interest.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has recently developed guidelines for establishing a comprehensive crisis response system for behavioral health. Per these guidelines, a comprehensive system should provide individuals in crisis with “someone to call,” “someone to respond,” and “a place to go” to receive crisis response services.