Drug Supply Chain: Potential Green Shoots: May IQVIA Volumes Rebound

Research evidence excerpt

Drug Supply Chain: Potential Green Shoots: May IQVIA Volumes Rebound

Deutsche Bank

Research

North America Industry Date

United States 22 June 2026

Drug Supply Chain

Health Care Industry Update

Healthcare Technology &

Distribution

Potential Green Shoots: May IQVIA

Volumes Rebound

George Hill

May Dollars Continue to Decline as Adjusted Volumes Rebound: IQVIA recently

Research Analyst

released May 2026 prescription market data that shows a meaningful year-over- +1-212-250-7822

year decline in reported dollar sales growth and utilization, although adjusted

volumes appear more favorable. As seen in Figure 1 below, May total adjusted Liz Li

Research Associate

scripts grew +1.1% y/y, the best growth YTD, driven by strong Mail and Long-Term

+1-617-251-2782

Care (LTC) channel growth, offset by flat Retail growth, which is notably the first

month of 2026 that Retail growth is not negative. May marks the ninth consecutive Maxi Ma, CFA

month with total adjusted Rx growth below 2% y/y, which appears to be the new Research Associate

normal. Total reported scripts was down y/y, although May 2026 had one less +1-901-338-2175

business day than May 2025 which likely accounts for this decline, and we remind

Companies featured

investors that the adjustments to reported scripts only reflect day of the week and

length of month variations; factors such as trend and seasonality have not been CVS Health Corp (CVS.N),USD98.32 Buy

incorporated. The mix of scripts remained consistent, with the Retail channel Humana (HUM.N),USD360.65 Buy

representing 86% of all scripts, LTC was 11%, and Mail was 6%. New scripts in May McKesson Corp (MCK.N),USD750.63 Buy

accounted for 60% of total scripts and declined (1.4%) y/y driven by a decline in Cigna (CI.N),USD279.27 Hold