Evaluation of Co-Pay Card Utilization

Patient savings programs, in particular co-pay card programs, continue to bear scrutiny across the industry. Co-pay card programs are patient-based programs designed by manufacturers to assist commercially insured and cash paying patients in affording their medications. Industry stakeholders are especially critical of these programs, claiming they incentivize the use of highcost therapies – including the purchase of branded drugs over their less expensive, generic equivalents. In an effort to quantify the use of patient savings programs among brands that have lost exclusivity on their patents (LOE) and have generic equivalents in the market, IQVIA identified post-LOE brands in pharmacy claims data and measured co-pay card use within them.