Ashok Pinnamaraju is a well established Roanoke, Virginia, pharmacy owner who guides operations at Williamson Road Pharmacy. Focused on providing quality services to prescription customers, Ashok Pinnamaraju keeps current on evolving industry trends.
Americans spend the most per capita for prescription drugs worldwide, with the $1,112 per person spent annually significantly outpacing Japan, Canada, and Germany, all of which inhabit the $740 to $800 range.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that spending in this category will increase more than six percent annually through 2025. This is healthy for the pharmaceutical industry, but at the same time it places pressure on the federal budget, as some 40 percent of retail drugs consumed are covered through US government programs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' figures for 2015 put retail prescription drug expenditures at $325 billion, which constituted approximately 10 percent of total national health care costs.
One complex equation that many people believe needs to be balanced encompasses health insurance premiums, R&D incentives for the creation of new drugs provided by 20 year patent terms, and the cost advantages offered by generics as they come online.
