The recent, sudden disruption of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) deliveries has caused concern about people receiving their medications later than they normally would. While news reports and statements by lawmakers indicate that many Americans have lost prescriptions in the mail or received them late, drug benefit and supply chain experts say the disruption to the most vulnerable patients served by specialty and mail order pharmacies should be minimal.
An Aug. 24 Axios-Ipsos poll shows that one in five Americans received medication through the mail during the preceding week. One in four of that group, or 5% of Americans overall, didn’t receive their medication or got it late.
By Peter Johnson
The recent, sudden disruption of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) deliveries has caused concern about people receiving their medications later than they normally would. While news reports and statements by lawmakers indicate that many Americans have lost prescriptions in the mail or received them late, drug benefit and supply chain experts say the disruption to the most vulnerable patients served by specialty and mail order pharmacies should be minimal.
An Aug. 24 Axios-Ipsos poll shows that one in five Americans received medication through the mail during the preceding week. One in four of that group, or 5% of Americans overall, didn’t receive their medication or got it late.
In addition, PBMs have not reported significant disruption to their supply chains.
“Most of the drugs shipped from a mail order pharmacy — a non-specialty pharmacy — you worry about them being perishable, but they tend to be pretty stable. They’re oral pills, things like that,” says Mike Schneider, a principal at Avalere Health.
Schneider also suggests that mail order pharmacies’ longer fills, which typically keep shipping costs down by filling for 90 days or more, should insulate patients from major disruptions. He adds that most mail order medication businesses also build logistical complications into their shipping schedules.
Omar Hafez, a principal at Avalere and a former supply chain executive at specialty pharmacy McKesson Specialty Health, says that time- and temperature-sensitive therapies have very specific delivery windows that are mandated by law. He says the strict requirements mean that the bulk of the supply chain for temperature-sensitive specialty drugs is managed by specialized logistics firms, not the USPS.
Schneider says the pharmacy supply chain as a whole has proved remarkably resilient over the course of 2020 — despite the tumult caused by the pandemic and the USPS brouhaha.
“I think a lot of supply chain issues never really materialized, at least not to my knowledge,” Schneider says. “There are a certain drugs that have shortages, but nothing that seemed like it was a national emergency. I think part of the reduced supply might have been everybody was going and filling their prescriptions as the virus was hitting, and everybody was getting some longer-term fills.”
