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pubmed:abstractText |
Pharmacy benefits have historically excluded injectable drugs, resulting in coverage of injectable drugs under the medical benefit. High-cost biologics and other new drug therapies are often injectables and therefore have not presented cost threats to pharmacy benefits. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of capecitabine, an oral form of fluorouracil, in 1998, and imatinib mesylate in oral dose form for chronic myeloid leukemia, in 2001, signaled a new period in budget forecasting for pharmacy benefits, particularly for small, self-insured employers for whom a drug with a cost of 25,000 dollars per year of therapy for 1 patient could increase total pharmacy benefit costs by 10% or more.
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