The Influence of Trump Rx in Pharmacy Benefit Managers, Retail Pharmacies, and Digital Health Platforms

Joseph Kleiman, president of Buzz Health, discusses the impact of Trump RX on transparency in drug pricing. In his conversation with Pharmaceutical Executive, he emphasizes the importance of early price visibility to help consumers make informed decisions, noting the dynamic nature of prices and potential shortages.

A transcript of his conversation with Pharmaceutical Executive can be found below:

Pharmaceutical Executive: How might TrumpRx influence the broader ecosystem of pharmacy benefit managers, retail pharmacies, and digital health platforms?
Joseph Kleiman: Whether it's Trump Rx or anybody that has increased visibility, I think you put pressure all the way upstream to do things the right way, make things more affordable and or more easily accessible to consumers.

One of the biggest gaps that you see isn't in pricing necessarily, sometimes, but it's the availability for consumers to go find it. I think the most positive thing about what Trump RX has done is it's big, bright light, it's front and center. You let consumers know these are available, and as long as things continue to do that, I think we're in a good place.

Pharmaceutical Executive: Do initiatives such as Trump Rx represent a structural shift toward more transparent drug pricing models?
Joseph Kleiman: I think it's a little too early to tell. I mean, we're a couple weeks in, and it's going to take some time to figure out if what consumers are viewing online ties into what's happening at the pharmacies, like I mentioned earlier, if you start running into maybe shortages and drugs, or if some of these programs or some of these prices that are made available shipped, meaning, if some are introductory prices and those long term turn out not to be the price, that's going to be the true grading point of whether or not this has initial success, let's see after it's been in the market.

Pharmaceutical Executive: Does Trump Rx meet pre-launch expectations?
Joseph Kleiman: I think it's a little too early to tell. I mean, we're a couple weeks in, and it's going to take some time to figure out if what consumers are viewing online ties into what's happening at the pharmacies, like I mentioned earlier, if you start running into maybe shortages on drugs, or if some of these programs or some of these prices that are made available shift, meaning, if some are introductory prices and those long term turn out not to be the price, that's going to be the true, I guess, grading point of whether or not this has initial success.

Let's see after it's been in the market, and not just Trump RX, anybody out there offering discounts, whether it's Trump, RX, Good, RX, Buzz RX, you know, Cost Plus, let's see how it fares in the pharmacy. After time if consumers are happy, then we'll be able to tell.