Wholesale Acquisition Costs (WACs) for a number of popular drugs are coming down, with the biggest WAC reductions in the history of the pharmaceutical industry happening now. Some industry experts are estimating that manufacturers are reducing WACs by as much as $50 billion.

You should have received notices from your wholesaler(s) about specific products with upcoming WAC decreases, and these include some big names like Eliquis, Jardiance, and Farxiga. Depending on the wholesaler's policy, pharmacies are in danger of being stuck with the higher priced drug versus the same drug with a lower WAC.

Review your inventory, cross-check the products with WAC decreases, and streamline your inventory immediately! Not doing so could cost you tens of thousands of dollars!

Let's use Farxiga as an example. Let's say you have four bottles of Farxiga on your shelf. You bought those four bottles from your wholesaler based on the current WAC of approximately $600. Let's also say hypothetically, AstraZeneca reduces Farxiga's WAC by 30% — lowering its WAC by $180. You know the PBM's won't delay in changing the basis of their reimbursement based on the new, lower WAC, so if you dispense the Farxiga on your shelf that you bought at the higher WAC, that could be one extra-UGLY reimbursement — probably way below your acquisition cost. Now multiply that across all the medications with WAC reductions and they could add up to be a crippling loss for pharmacies.

Wholesalers have already started to implement return blocks for some products with WAC reductions, and more of those product return blocks are coming, so if you haven't already returned those products, you're likely stuck with those higher WAC products.

That's why you must take action now. In the wake of these WAC decreases, it is critical that you do the following to save your business tens of thousands of dollars:

• Review your inventory;

• Cross-check the products with WAC decreases;

• Check your will call for prescriptions for WAC affected medications and make sure they get picked up, delivered, or returned to stock and used.

• Pay close attention to WAC reduction announcements from your wholesaler;

• Make sure that you fully understand any return blocks implemented by wholesalers;

• Streamline your inventory immediately;

• Take full advantage of on demand ordering; and

• Enroll in CMS' Medicare Transaction Facilitator program immediately to make sure that you are getting manufacturer refund payments for the first 10 Medicare negotiated drugs under the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program.

The following upcoming WAC decreases are those known by NCPA:

• From AbbVie

  • Linzess January 1, 2026

• From AstraZeneca

  • Farxiga January 1, 2026

• From Boehringer Ingelheim

  • Glyxambi January 1, 2026

  • Jardiance January 1, 2026

  • Synjardy January 1, 2026

  • SynjardyXR January 1, 2026

  • TrijardyXR January 1, 2026

• From Bristol Myers Squibb

  • Eliquis January 1, 2026

• From Eli Lilly

  • Humalog U200 February 1, 2026

  • Lyumjev February 1, 2026

• From NovoNordisk

  • Fiasp January 1, 2026

  • Tresiba January 1, 2026

• From Pharmacyclics (AbbVie)

  • Imbruvica December 22, 2025

Information above current as of 11/21/2025