{"id":527247,"date":"2026-07-15T12:03:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T12:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/527247\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T12:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T12:03:21","slug":"sales-from-controversial-u-s-drug-discount-program-rose-to-100b-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/527247\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales from controversial U.S. drug discount program rose to $100B last year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-bio\">Ed\u2019s stories explore prescription drug pricing, affordability and access, as well issues surrounding patents, litigation, and legislation. He is also the author of the morning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/signup\/pharmalittle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pharmalittle newsletter<\/a> and the afternoon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/signup\/pharmalot\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pharmalot newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Prescription medicines purchased in the U.S. under a controversial government discount program amounted to $100 billion in 2025, a 22.8% increase from the previous year, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the program.<\/p>\n<p>Expensive medicines represented an increasing proportion of spending in the  340B Drug Discount Program, accounting for $61.9 billion, or nearly 62% of all prescription drugs purchased through the program. Nearly $8.9 billion was spent on Merck\u2019s Keytruda immunotherapy treatment, followed by more than $4.47 billion on Biktarvy, an HIV medicine sold by Gilead Sciences.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrsa.gov\/opa\/updates\/2025-340b-covered-entity-purchases\" id=\"https:\/\/www.hrsa.gov\/opa\/updates\/2025-340b-covered-entity-purchases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The data<\/a> mark a steady rise in sales under the 340B program, which requires drugmakers to offer discounts that are typically estimated to be 25% to 50% \u2014 but could be higher \u2014 off all outpatient drugs to hospitals and clinics that primarily serve lower-income patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-text\">STAT+ Exclusive Story<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-login\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"restricted-content-breaker-bg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/stat-plus-breaker-bg.png\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"stat-plus-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/stat\/images\/stat-plus-logo-white.svg\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tThis article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tUnlock this article \u2014 plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-breaker-wrapper-cta mobile\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tIndividual plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tGroup plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button view-all\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker view all plans\" aria-label=\"View All Plans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">View All Plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTo read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button restricted-button\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker subscribe cta 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed\u2019s stories explore prescription drug pricing, affordability and access, as well issues surrounding patents, litigation, and legislation. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7253,134,527,3274,111,139,69,1674,1676],"class_list":["post-527247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-drug-pricing","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospitals","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-stat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}