GlaxoSmithKline will limit 340B drug discounts for safety net hospitals' contract pharmacies, the drugmaker said in a Feb. 14 letter to hospitals.
Effective April 1, GSK will provide 340B discounts only to locations registered as a 340B covered entity or child site location affiliated with that covered entity.
Contract pharmacies for covered entities will no longer be eligible for 340B discounts from GSK. Federal grantees' contract pharmacies will remain eligible, according to the letter.
This move makes GSK the 13th drugmaker to restrict 340B discounts. It joins AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, UCB and United Therapeutics.
"More than 25 million Americans — including more than 5 million children — live with asthma today, and another 15 million people are living with COPD. They rely on drugs made by GSK and others to live healthy lives," said Maureen Testoni, president and CEO of advocacy group 340B Health. "340B hospitals use savings from mandated discounts to provide free or low-cost drugs as well as vital wraparound services to patients in need. GSK’s actions will make it much more difficult for that care to continue at an affordable cost."
Drugmakers started imposing restrictions on discounts afforded to hospitals in the federal 340B program in July 2020. In December 2021, more than 800 participating hospitals urged the federal government to appeal a federal court decision that upheld price denials from two drugmakers.