Payers May Restrict Coverage of New Fast-Acting Oral Drug for Major Depression

  • Aug 25, 2022

    The FDA on Aug. 19 approved the first and only rapid-acting oral drug for major depressive disorder (MDD), a treatment that is being hailed by its manufacturer as a “potential game-changer” for people struggling with the difficult-to-treat condition. 

    One pharma analyst expressed optimism about the drug’s ability to disrupt the MDD treatment market. However, experts from the PBM sector predict that payers may not embrace the drug warmly given how many generics are available to treat depression. 

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  • Leslie Small

    Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.

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