A new survey from the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy reveals persistent doubt among health plans and pharmacy benefit managers about the TrumpRx platform’s real-world savings.
The TrumpRx platform has been live for more than six months, yet managed care professionals are not convinced it delivers the lowest available drug prices for patients.
Adam Colborn, vice president of government affairs at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, has been breaking down the survey’s findings in a video interview series with Pharmaceutical Commerce.
The survey of 59 managed care professionals found that a majority disagreed or strongly disagreed that TrumpRx offers patients the lowest available price for their medications.
More than half of respondents said they were concerned or extremely concerned about patients’ ability to access medication through the TrumpRx program.
Colborn described the current savings narrative surrounding TrumpRx as “more messaging than true data,” a pointed critique of how the platform has been promoted to the public.
He pointed out that patients already have an established range of affordability resources, from insurance benefits to manufacturer savings programs to pharmacy discount cards.
GLP-1 medications emerged as an early test case, where the TrumpRx price landed well below other cash prices insurers had been tracking, giving PBMs a fresh benchmark to compete against in their own benefit design.
The Federal Trade Commission’s settlements with PBMs, including Express Scripts, require standard plan offerings to eventually count TrumpRx purchases toward a patient’s deductible once the necessary regulatory groundwork is in place.
Colborn noted that the survey results potentially indicate a disconnect between how TrumpRx is being marketed and how managed care professionals view its real-world value.
The findings raise broader questions about whether most favoured nation pricing claims attached to TrumpRx can hold up to scrutiny from an industry that manages drug access for millions of patients across the United States.