Managing Non-Essential Drugs

Save as Much as 60% by Replacing Costly Drugs with Lower Cost Alternatives

A trend of new, high-cost drugs being created from existing, lower cost medications has crept into the pharmaceutical industry. These expensive new drugs provide no clinical advantage or health benefit and unnecessarily inflate drug spend.

As an example, Treximet^® is a combination of sumatriptan and over-the-counter naproxen, however, Treximet costs $1,056 per prescription, whereas, sumatriptan and naproxen only cost $13.

It is important to have a system to identify these non-essential drugs and provide lower cost alternatives. Our Non-essential Drug (NED) program finds, excludes, and replaces these drugs with more affordable, clinically sound alternatives-incentivizing members to limit out-of-pocket costs with smart choices, saving plans as much as 60% per prescription. This can equate to 2% in annual savings.