Why are pharmacy acquisition costs and consumer prescription drug price indices apparently diverging?

Abstract

Pharmacy acquisition costs for prescription (R

x
) drugs have been trending below levels implied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Consumer Price Index for R

x
drugs, with the divergence higher when generic approvals are high. Dropping the first 6 months of generic sales from price indices calculated from pharmacy acquisition costs eliminates most of the difference between such indices and BLS indices.

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