Drug Supply Chain: Brake Check? April IQVIA Volumes Continue Recent Soft Trend

Research evidence excerpt

Drug Supply Chain: Brake Check? April IQVIA Volumes Continue Recent Soft Trend

Deutsche Bank

Research

North America Industry Date

United States 14 May 2026

Drug Supply Chain

Health Care Industry Update

Healthcare Technology &

Distribution

Brake Check? April IQVIA Volumes

Continue Recent Soft Trend

George Hill

ham Research Analyst

Reversion, Soft Growth in April Utilization Trends: IQVIA recently released April +1-212-250-7822

2026 prescription market data that shows tempered year-over-year growth with

Liz Li

mostly sequential declines in both utilization and dollar sales growth. As seen in Research Associate

Figure 1 below, April total adjusted scripts saw close to flat growth y/y, driven by +1-617-251-2782

strong Mail channel utilization offset by a decline in the Retail channel. April marks

Maxi Ma, CFA

the eighth consecutive month with total adjusted Rx growth below 2% y/y, which

Research Associate

may just be the new normal. Total reported scripts remained flat to slightly positive

+1-901-338-2175

y/y, and we note that April 2026 had the same number of business days as April

2025, however April 2025 saw total adjusted growth of +3.1% y/y and total reported

Companies featured

growth of +2.3% y/y. Looking at the mix of total scripts, the Retail channel made up

CVS Health Corp (CVS.N),USD98.11 Buy

83% of all scripts, LTC was 11%, and Mail was 6%, which largely has not changed

Cigna (CI.N),USD300.71 Buy

with LTC and Mail taking ~1% of share from Retail since the start of 2025. April new

McKesson Corp (MCK.N),USD737.18 Buy

scripts accounted for 61% of total scripts and saw growth of +1.3% y/y driven by

improvement in the Mail channel, while Refills grew modestly at +0.5% y/y driven UnitedHealth Group Hold

(UNH.N),USD401.16