How pharmacy strategy is evolving
Pharmacy strategy is increasingly being shaped by utilization, access, reimbursement, care delivery, and channel strategy—not price inflation alone.
1. Pharmacy strategy is expanding beyond acute care.
While acute care inflation remains comparatively stable, growth continues to shift toward ambulatory, specialty, and complex therapies, requiring pharmacy strategy to extend beyond inpatient drug cost management and into ambulatory operations, specialty pharmacy access, payer strategy, reimbursement performance, and advanced therapy infrastructure.
2. High-growth therapies are reshaping pharmacy spending.
Oncology represents the largest share of analyzed pharmacy purchases, followed closely by autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. Growth in GLP-1 therapies, PD-1/PD-L1 therapies, oral oncolytics, immune globulin, biosimilars, and cell and gene therapies demonstrate why organizations should plan for product mix, utilization growth, site of care, reimbursement, and channel strategy—not projected price change alone—when developing pharmacy budgets and enterprise strategy.
3. Contracting, channel visibility, and payer strategy strengthen enterprise performance.
Contract products are projected to increase less than non-contract products, reinforcing the value of formulary alignment, aggregation, and contract portfolio utilization where clinically appropriate. At the same time, high-cost therapies are increasingly flowing through specialty, retail, direct-purchase, and limited-distribution channels, requiring stronger coordination across pharmacy, finance, revenue cycle, contracting, payer relations, specialty pharmacy, and clinical service lines to ensure visibility.
Market dynamics to watch
Acute care: Operationally stable, but increasingly complex
Acute care remains operationally critical because many high-spend products are clinically essential, difficult to substitute, and tied to perioperative care, ICU services, and other high-acuity settings.
At the same time, acute care pharmacy is becoming increasingly complex as high-volume inpatient demand converges with a growing concentration of high-cost specialty therapies. As advanced therapies become a larger contributor to inpatient spend, organizations will need stronger coordination across clinical, operational, and reimbursement functions to support both patient access and financial performance.
High-acuity care continues to shape inpatient pharmacy demand: Although acute care remains one of the lower-inflation pharmacy segments, rising patient acuity continues to increase demand for high-cost medications and supply assurance. As health systems care for more medically complex patients, leaders must balance access, operational readiness, and financial stewardship across critical inpatient service lines.
Explore deeper insights into rising patient acuity and the growing presence of high-cost specialty therapies that are reshaping acute care pharmacy demand. Access the data to see what it means for your organization in the
acute care outlook.
Advanced therapies are increasing inpatient complexity: Cell and gene therapies, immune globulin, and other specialty products are becoming more visible contributors to inpatient pharmacy spend. These therapies often require multidisciplinary coordination across pharmacy, oncology, nursing, revenue cycle, finance, and care management, reinforcing the need for standardized pathways and strong governance.
For leaders, the opportunity is to strengthen supply assurance, specialty therapy readiness, and multidisciplinary coordination across high-acuity service lines while maintaining timely access to clinically essential therapies.
Discover insights about how cell and gene therapies are transforming inpatient pharmacy complexity. Understand what standardized pathways and governance need to look like for your organization in our
therapeutic trends outlook.
