Today’s Insights

2025 Bold Predictions - Pharmacy Edition

1 Retail pharmacies continue to reduce hours or close.

CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and (unfortunately) many independent pharmacies will see their doors permanently shut. Retail pharmacists will continue to report lower job satisfaction and annual wages compared to their peers in other sectors.

2 Michigan pharmacists continue to see their wages decrease in comparison to the rest of the country.

Removing the MPJE requirement in the state of Michigan increased the number of pharmacists in the job market. The increased competition in Michigan led to decreasing wages compared to the rest of the US market. Michigan retail pharmacists will be most negatively impacted considering prediction #1 and #2.

3 Pharmacy school enrollment will continue to decline.

In response to a 3% decrease in pharmacy student enrollment (2023 vs 2022), the PCAT requirement was removed in early 2024. Despite making the application process easier, the 2024 report will show another decrease in enrollment.

4 Nothing will happen to the big 3 PBMs.

The hottest pharmacy news of the 2024 summer was the FTC suing the big 3 PBMs and then their CEOs being threatened with jail time for perjury. That effort was led by Lina Khan but her time as FTC chair might be coming to an end.

5 Trump’s pick to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr., makes exactly zero changes to vaccine recommendations.

During his run for presidency, RFK Jr. made many news headlines in recent years. His views on vaccines were a popular topic to write and post about. Now that he is head of the HHS, some believe he will make drastic changes to vaccine recommendations. He won’t make any official changes on paper but public health data will show decreasing vaccine use in years to come. Public health outcomes - TBD.

From more retail pharmacy closures to vaccine policies, our 2025 pharmacy forecast could be a hard pill to swallow (pun intended) - but what do you think?

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