What We're Reading

Health Policy Journal Club, October 2025

The health policy journal club is an interdisciplinary, inter-professional group convened monthly by the Farley Health Policy Center to discuss timely topics in health policy. A curated selection of high-yield articles provides the basis for discussion. Past topics have included income inequality and health, professionalism in medicine, patients as consumers, and adjusting payment for measures of social risk. This page presents the reading list from the most recent journal club.

This month’s theme was “Big Pharma and prescription drug affordability, Part 1: Pharmaceutical middlemen (PBMs) and drug price negotiation.”

Overview

• Following the Money: Untangling U.S. Prescription Drug Financing. Center for American Progress. October 12, 2023.
  

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs)

• Optional (if you'd like a short video introduction to the below): Robbins R, Hogan C, Shaman C, Surdam J. Our reporter on how pharmacy benefit managers work. The New York Times. June 21, 2024.
• Also optional (if you'd like a very short satirical overview): 30 Days of US Healthcare: Pharmacy Benefit Managers. Dr. Glaucomflecken.
• Robbins R, Abelson R. The Opaque Industry Secretly Inflating Prices for Prescription Drugs. The New York Times. June 21, 2024.
• Abelson R, Robbins R. The Powerful Companies Driving Local Drugstores Out of Business. The New York Times. October 19, 2024.

Federal actions on PBMs

• FTC Releases Second Interim Staff Report on Prescription Drug Middlemen. January 14, 2025. Press Release. Federal Trade Commission.
• Wilson R. The Trump administration's approach to PBMs, so far: 5 things to know. Becker's Hospital Review. June 23, 2025.
• Gardner S, Hooper K. Can Congress revive PBM reform? September 8, 2025. Politico.
• Pharma middlemen propose regulatory changes to avoid Trump administration rules, Bloomberg News reports. Reuters. September 24, 2025.

State actions on PBMs 

• Huckabee Sanders S. My State is Taking on the Middlemen who Inflate Drug Prices. The New York Times Opinion. June 10, 2025. 
• Byers J, Twinamatsiko A. PBM Laws & State Reforms: Are Big Changes Coming? Health Affairs This Week. August 28, 2025. 
• Optional/for reference: State Laws Passed to Lower Prescription Drug Costs: 2017-2025. NASHP. Updated July 23, 2025. [go to the drop down bar and select "Pharmacy Benefit Manager"]

Drug price negotiation 

• Baron Z, Twinamatsiko A. Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program: A Litigation Status Check. Health Affairs Forefront. July 18, 2025. 
• Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Announces Actions to Get Americans the Best Prices in the World for Prescription Drugs. The White House. July 31, 2025. 
• Sullivan P. Drugmakers meet Trump only halfway on pricing plan. Axios. September 24, 2025.