Hydery and Reddy (2024) present a pleasant primer on drug formularies. Under is a fast overview.

What’s a formulary?

A formulary is a frequently up to date listing of medicines, merchandise, and applied sciences supported by present evidence-based medication, in addition to the judgment of physicians, pharmacists, and different related specialists within the prognosis and remedy of illness and preservation of well being. Formularies usually share an overarching purpose to offer entry to acceptable remedy whereas selling efficient useful resource utilization, which permits the managed care pharmacy group to function sustainably

What sorts of formulary buildings are there?

• Closed formularies are formulary the place excluded merchandise should not lined.
• Open formularies present protection for all merchandise out there; nonetheless, the trade-off is greater prices to the payer and doubtlessly the member. 
• Tiered formularies, affected person out-of-pocket prices depend upon wherein tier a selected product is categorized. Due to this fact, sufferers are incentivized to make use of lower-tier remedy by way of a decrease copayment. 
• Worth-based formularies assess product worth primarily utilizing cost-effectiveness evaluation, assigning merchandise with a excessive assessed worth (low incremental cost-effectiveness ratio) to decrease copayments and merchandise with a low assessed worth (excessive incremental cost-effectiveness ratio) to greater copayments. 

What concerns do payers bear in mind when growing a formulary?

What are key traits to think about in formulary growth?

Some key points embrace the rise within the approval and launch of biosimilars, prescription digital therapeutics, and the growing emphasis on well being fairness.