340B Drug Purchases Are Just Shy of $7 Billion Annually

by admin | January 9, 2014 3:38 pm

January 9, 2014—The dollar amount of pharmaceuticals purchased through the 340B program has been a guesstimate—until now. [ms-protect-content id=”2799″] In recent court filings, the federal government supplied a never-before-seen, precise tally of $6,941,926,458.00 for fiscal year 2012.

The data came to light as part of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s (PhRMA) suit seeking to nullify the 340B regulation[1] allowing certain rural and free-standing cancer hospitals to receive discounted pricing on orphan drugs when prescribed for non-orphan conditions.

To bolster its defense of the regulation, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) filed a chart showing that 340B drugs sales in 2012 to hospitals covered by the regulation were low: $215.5 million, or 3.1 percent of the total annual 340B sales of $6.9 billion.

HRSA said its 340B sales data came from the 340B Prime Vendor Program and are estimated to capture 90 percent of all 340B sales. This suggests the true annual 340B drug sales figure is likely somewhat higher than $6.9 billion.

In recent years, HRSA has been pegging annual 340B drug sales at roughly $6 billion, representing approximately 2 percent of all U.S. drug purchases. The new 340B sales total raises that percentage slightly to 2.1 percent. IMS Health Informatics Institute reports that overall U.S. spending on pharmaceutical products was $325.8 billion in 2012.

Entity   Type	2012   Fiscal Year Total
	Sales	% of Total Sales to 340B Entities
Critical   Access Hospital	$86,580,619	1.25%
Free-Standing   Cancer Hospital	$33,110,213	0.48%
Rural   Referral Center	$35,783,389	0.52%
Sole   Community Hospital	$60,064,532	0.87%
Total   for the four types above	$215,538,752	3.10%
Total   340B Sales	$6,941,926,458

Source: HRSA [/ms-protect-content]

Source URL: https://340bemployed.org/340b-drug-purchases-are-just-shy-of-7-billion-annually-2/

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