Examples of these types of specialty medications include drugs for inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, drugs for multiple sclerosis, cancer medications, and HIV medications.
2011 Trends for Specialty Medications
Spending on specialty medications has been rising steadily for several years; however, this trend eased slightly in 2011, with an overall year-over-year growth of 17.1% (down from 19.6% in 2010). The top three specialty therapy classes—inflammatory conditions, multiple sclerosis, and cancer—top the list of most-used specialty medications, representing 57.6% of the total.
Although prevalence of specialty medication utilization is relatively low in the overall population, with only about 1% of people requiring these medications, costs are extremely high – averaging $1,766.79 per prescription. The top three specialty therapy classes each saw spending increase more than 15%.
Hepatitis C had the greatest increase—194.8%— which was influenced by the release of two new oral drugs.
Want to learn more? Spend some time in this section for a thorough review of the current trends for specialty medications, in addition to Express Scripts’ 2011 Drug Trend Report.