1 May 2018 - The share specialty drugs have of total U.S. pharmaceutical sales is hurtling toward 50% just as the Donald Trump White House prepares next week to unveil proposals to curtail the nation’s tab for prescription drugs.

Specialty drugs as a percent of U.S. pharmaceutical sales are already at 40%, but new data Avalere Health released Tuesday at the annual Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit shows that is only expected to grow. Data from Avalere, a health research and consulting firm, shows 50% of all newly approved drugs in 2015 alone “were considered specialty” and another 900 specialty drugs are currently in development.

Specialty drugs and the companies that support them have taken off as an industry as these new expensive specialised treatments have flooded the market, creating more need to service, handle and dispense such life-saving medicines. That, however, has come with higher costs given the reimbursement needed for everything from dispensing and distribution to case management of patients.

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