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Dueling for Duals: Why the Poorest Medicare Recipients Should be Pharma's Top Priority in 2006

 
• By Michael McCaughan

The transfer of the poorest Medicare recipients to Part D means big changes in a critical submarket for pharma. If all goes well, it should pay off in a de facto price increase for some of the biggest industry blockbusters.

Manufacturers struggling to make sense of the emerging Medicare prescription drug benefit should not be distracted from the immediate impact Part D will have on a large and rapidly growing submarket: the 6.5 million "dual eligibles," Medicare beneficiaries who are poor enough to qualify for prescription drug coverage under the Medicaid program.

Though only a small slice of the 42 million Medicare population, the duals represent a large portion of drug spending,...

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