By Joel Wright, President, Pharmacy Services, VytlOne

Summary

Most health systems capture only a fraction of the 340B savings they are eligible for. The gap hides in eligibility screening, contract pharmacy management, and split billing, where manual processes and legacy tools miss cases that a modern 340B program would catch. Specialty pharmacy usually holds the largest uncaptured opportunity. The savings are rarely lost to carelessness. They are lost to a lack of visibility.

Expectations vs. reality

Ask most health system CEOs and CFOs how they think about pharmacy, and you will usually get one of two answers: it is a clinical department, or it is a cost center to manage carefully. Both are true as far as they go. But they miss the bigger picture.

Pharmacy, particularly 340B and specialty pharmacy, is one of the largest untapped revenue engines most systems have.

That is not a knock on anyone running these programs. The people managing 340B and specialty pharmacy today are capable, careful, and stretched thin. The real issue is that eligibility screening, manufacturer restrictions, contract pharmacy complexity, and split billing have grown far more complicated than the manual processes and legacy tools most systems still rely on.

It is not a talent gap. It is a tools gap.

How much 340B revenue are most health systems missing?

The 340B program represents billions in savings for eligible health systems, yet the average system captures only a fraction of what it is entitled to. In hundreds of gap analyses, we have found meaningful uncaptured savings in nearly every one we have run. The question usually is not whether the gap exists. It is how large it turns out to be.

Specialty pharmacy is where that gap, and the dollars, tend to concentrate. Complex therapies, oncology, rare disease, and transplants, are exactly where eligible patients slip through manual screening, and a well-run specialty pharmacy program at a 340B hospital can generate up to six times more revenue per prescription than a retail program. Most C-suites haven’t had that number put in front of them plainly. It deserves to be.

What closing the 340B gap looks like in practice

One system we work with, an 800-bed multi-campus health system, recognized $25 million in net new profit in its first year working with us. We are now tracking toward $50 million as we expand into additional service lines and pharmacy operations. That is not a hypothetical upside. It is what happens when a health system gets the visibility and infrastructure to capture what the program was always supposed to provide.

Closing that gap is the focus of our 340B optimization work, where the goal is simple: capture what the program was designed to deliver, and keep capturing it as the rules shift.

A financial shift worth your attention

The 340B rebate model pilot scheduled to take effect January 1, 2027 is a shift that belongs on your balance sheet, not off to the side in pharmacy. It is still moving, drawing active litigation and competing legislation, so the details may change. What does not change is the direction: more scrutiny, more complexity, and less room for a program you set up once and left alone.

Most executives have not had a real conversation yet about what it means for their organization. Not because they are not paying attention, but because so much else is competing for that attention right now.

Manufacturer restrictions, regulatory changes, and contract pharmacy rules are all moving at once. Systems that set up their 340B program once and left it alone are often surprised, years later, by how much savings quietly eroded.

Why the 340B gap is usually a data problem

When a pharmacy director says the program is performing well and the CFO is not so sure, that is rarely a disagreement about pharmacy. It is a visibility problem. Health systems fight hard for every dollar of payer reimbursement, then leave 340B savings unclaimed on the other side of the ledger, not out of carelessness, but because no one has had the tools to see it clearly. Recognizing $5 million a year in savings for a 500-bed hospital has leaders feeling good about the program. Learning it should be $19 to $22 million annually puts it in a different light. “Performing well” has to be measured against the potential to be meaningful.

This is the problem VytlAIQ was built to solve. Not a reporting layer bolted onto existing processes, but a platform built by people who have run these programs at scale and know exactly where the gaps hide. It does not replace your pharmacy team. It gives them the visibility and speed to stay ahead of an environment that manual processes were never built to handle.

The strongest 340B programs I have seen have one thing in common: the CFO and the pharmacy director are looking at the same numbers, in the same room, at the same time. That alignment is rarer than it should be, but when it happens, the results are not incremental.

How to know if your 340B program is capturing enough

Your pharmacy program is either funding your mission or quietly limiting it. There is not much middle ground. Within a reasonable range, we can usually tell you what a health system your size should be capturing from 340B, and what most systems your size actually capture. The gap between those two numbers is usually where the conversation gets interesting.

If you have not had that conversation yet, now is a good time to start. The environment is not getting simpler, and the systems that get ahead of it are the ones that stop treating pharmacy as a cost to manage and start treating it as the asset it is.

Key takeaways

• Most health systems capture only a fraction of the 340B savings they are eligible for. The gap is a tools problem, not a talent problem.
• Specialty pharmacy holds the largest uncaptured opportunity, up to six times more revenue per prescription than a retail program.
• The 340B rebate model change expected in January 2027 makes this a balance-sheet priority, not a back-office one.
• The core barrier is visibility. When the CFO and pharmacy director see the same numbers, the results are not incremental.

Frequently asked questions

How much 340B revenue do most health systems miss?

Most capture only a fraction of what they are eligible for. In hundreds of gap analyses, we have found meaningful uncaptured savings in nearly every one. For a 500-bed hospital, a program recognizing $5 million a year in savings should often be capturing $19 to $22 million. The uncaptured dollars concentrate in specialty pharmacy and in eligibility cases that manual screening misses.

Why do health systems leave 340B savings unclaimed?

Not through carelessness. Eligibility screening, manufacturer restrictions, contract pharmacy complexity, and split billing have outgrown the manual processes most systems still use. The savings are left on the table because teams have not had the tools to see them clearly.

How does specialty pharmacy affect 340B revenue?

Specialty pharmacy is where the largest uncaptured savings concentrate. Complex therapies in oncology, rare disease, and transplant are where eligible patients slip through manual screening, and a well-run specialty program at a 340B hospital can generate up to six times more revenue per prescription than a retail one.

Compare what a system of your size should be capturing against what it actually captures. That gap, sized through a 340B optimization review, is the clearest signal of whether a program is performing or just appearing to.

Learn more

Visit VytlAIQ to see what your 340B program should be capturing.

Joel Wright is a registered pharmacist and the President of Pharmacy Services at VytlOne. He has over 30 years of healthcare experience across retail operations, specialty pharmacy, managed pharmacy, health system and center pharmacy operations, and home infusion. Joel is dedicated to patient care, improving patient outcomes, and optimizing healthcare processes through innovation. 

How VytlAIQ turns pharmacy data into decisions

By Heather Brooks, Vice President, Pharmacy Services Products, VytlOne

How does AI improve pharmacy analytics for health systems? AI connects the data scattered across a health system’s pharmacy programs, from EMRs, third-party administrators, dispensing systems, and patient management platforms to 340B platforms, and normalizes it into one continuously updated view. That lets leaders see performance in real time, catch problems early, spot missed 340B and specialty opportunities, and make strategic decisions from clean data instead of manual reports. VytlAIQ is VytlOne’s AI-powered intelligence platform built to do exactly this for 340B, outpatient retail, specialty, and clinic-owned pharmacy programs.

Health system leaders overseeing 340B programs and outpatient pharmacy operations are managing some of the most complex, data-intensive work in healthcare. They are responsible for seeing that 340B savings flow back to the communities they serve, that outpatient retail and specialty pharmacies are retaining patients, and that clinic-owned pharmacy programs are reaching their full potential. The challenge has never been the availability of data. It has always been the ability to make sense of it quickly enough to act. VytlAIQ gives leaders real-time analytics, predictive insights, and decision-support tools built for exactly that complexity.

The five ways at a glance

• AI unifies data from every pharmacy system into one real-time view.
• AI catches performance signals early, while they are still easy to fix.
• AI surfaces missed 340B, retail, and specialty opportunities.
• AI flags patient leakage before a patient is lost.
• AI supports strategic decisions with clean, interpreted data.

1. AI brings all your pharmacy program data into one platform

Meaningful insight starts with complete data, and for health system pharmacy programs, that data lives in many places at once. A common frustration among pharmacy leaders is how long it takes to get a clear, reliable picture of program performance. Reports are often built manually, arrive on a lag, and require significant interpretation before they can inform a decision. Electronic medical records, third-party administrators, pharmacy dispensing systems, patient management platforms, and 340B platforms each hold a piece of the picture. Without a way to connect them, leaders make decisions on partial information or spend hours manually pulling data before analysis can begin.

VytlAIQ was built to solve that at the foundation. The platform ingests data from all of these source systems, normalizes it, and presents it through a single access point designed for health system pharmacy leadership. Rather than navigating multiple reports from multiple systems, leaders log into one platform and see a unified view of how their 340B, outpatient retail, and specialty pharmacy programs are performing. Because the data is consolidated and continuously updated, the dashboards reflect what is happening now, not what was happening when the last report ran. When something needs attention, it is visible. When programs are on track, that is visible too. The result is a leadership team that spends less time gathering data and more time acting on it.

2. AI turns data signals into early action

In health system pharmacy, the difference between a manageable issue and a major operational problem often comes down to timing. By the time a downward trend appears in a monthly report, the window for easy correction has usually passed. VytlAIQ closes that gap by identifying signals in the data early, while there is still time to act without disruption.

The platform continuously monitors performance indicators across all pharmacy program types, looking for patterns that precede problems rather than documenting them after the fact. A gradual decline in 340B-eligible prescription capture, a slowdown in specialty therapy starts, or a dip in refill adherence at a clinic-owned location are all conditions VytlAIQ can surface before they register as a trend leadership has to explain. When those signals appear, the platform brings them forward with enough context to understand what is happening, where, and what options exist to address it.

That early visibility changes how leadership teams operate. Rather than reacting to performance problems after the fact, they are positioned to make small, targeted adjustments that keep programs on track. Over time, that shift from reactive to proactive management has a meaningful impact on program performance, patient retention, and the financial health of the programs the health system depends on.

3. AI surfaces pharmacy program opportunities you’re missing

Health systems often do not know what they are missing until the data is organized to show them. VytlAIQ uses predictive analytics to identify underutilized opportunities across all three program types: 340B-eligible prescriptions that are not being captured, patients who miss the chance to fill at the health system retail pharmacy, and specialty therapy candidates being referred out of network.

For example, a health system may have a strong oncology program but route specialty patients to an external partner by default rather than capturing them in its own specialty pharmacy. VytlAIQ can identify that pattern, quantify the financial and clinical impact, and help leadership make the case for an operational change. These are not hypothetical opportunities. They are real gaps that exist in most health system pharmacy programs and are difficult to see without the right analytical lens.

4. AI spots patient leakage before it becomes a loss

Patient leakage occurs when a patient fills a prescription outside the health system’s pharmacy network. It is one of the most persistent and costly challenges pharmacy leaders face, and historically, identifying it required manual data pulls and retrospective analysis that arrived too late to act on.

VytlAIQ changes that by continuously analyzing patient prescription activity across 340B, outpatient retail, and specialty programs, identifying patterns that signal leakage risk before a patient is lost. For example, a patient discharged from a health system clinic who has not filled a follow-up prescription within an expected window can be flagged automatically, giving the care and pharmacy team a chance to re-engage. For 340B programs specifically, every prescription that leaves the network is a missed opportunity to capture savings that fund critical patient services.

5. AI supports better decisions about your pharmacy programs’ future

The most valuable use of AI in health system pharmacy is not describing what has happened. It is helping leadership decide what comes next. VytlAIQ combines historical performance data, predictive modeling, and the ability to ask the platform a direct question, giving leaders the context to think strategically about their programs. For 340B leaders, that means assessment and planning supported by visibility into program compliance, savings generation, eligible prescription capture rates, and change risk modeling. For outpatient retail and specialty programs, it means fill rates, patient leakage, adherence benchmarks, and revenue performance, plus the unique attributes affecting each.

Whether a health system is evaluating whether to expand its retail pharmacy reach, change its 340B program structure, or invest in specialty pharmacy growth, those decisions benefit from clean, organized, AI-interpreted data. VytlAIQ is designed to meet health system leaders wherever they are, whether managing day-to-day operations or planning three years out.

The future of health system pharmacy is one where AI handles the complexity of data aggregation and pattern recognition, freeing health system, pharmacy, and operational leaders to focus on what only people can do: building relationships, driving strategy, and delivering better outcomes for patients.

Frequently asked questions

What is pharmacy analytics?

Pharmacy analytics is the practice of collecting and interpreting data across a health system’s pharmacy programs, including 340B, outpatient retail, specialty, and clinic-owned, to measure performance, catch risks early, and guide decisions. AI platforms like VytlAIQ consolidate that data into one real-time view.

How does AI help manage 340B programs?

AI connects 340B platform data with dispensing and patient records to track eligible prescription capture, savings generation, and compliance, and to flag leakage and missed capture before savings are lost.

What is patient leakage in health system pharmacy?

Patient leakage is when a patient fills a prescription outside the health system’s own pharmacy network. AI can flag leakage risk early, for example when a discharged patient has not filled a follow-up prescription, so teams can re-engage.

What is VytlAIQ?

VytlAIQ is VytlOne’s AI-powered pharmacy intelligence platform for health system leadership. It unifies data across 340B, outpatient retail, specialty, and clinic-owned pharmacy programs to deliver real-time analytics, predictive insights, and decision support.

See VytlAIQ in action

Health system pharmacy programs are sitting on data that could be driving better decisions today. VytlAIQ was built to unlock that potential across 340B, outpatient retail, specialty, and clinic-owned pharmacy programs in one integrated platform.

Request a demo and see how VytlAIQ gives health system pharmacy leadership the insight to move forward with confidence.

Heather Brooks is a pharmacist and the Vice President of Pharmacy Services Products at VytlOne. She has over 30 years of experience across retail pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, and pharmacy operations. As a pharmacist, Heather believes in AI as a partner in healthcare, working alongside professional judgment. As an operational leader, she’s focused on what that partnership makes possible: leaner processes, faster throughput, and better use of every dollar and every hour.

What is a pharmacy desert?

A pharmacy desert is an area where residents lack reasonable access to a local pharmacy. Usually, this means when residents must travel long distances (over 10 miles) to get to the closest pharmacy. Currently, over 48 million Americans live in pharmacy deserts, which equates to about one in every seven people. Rural residents, low-income communities, and communities of color are most at risk of living in a pharmacy desert.

Why does this matter?

Lack of access to pharmacies can have downstream effects, like poor medication adherence, problems managing chronic diseases, and less access to preventive care.

Pharmacy deserts by the numbers

• 48 million Americans (about one in seven) live in a pharmacy desert. (GoodRx)
• Over 10 miles to the nearest pharmacy is a common threshold that defines a desert. (Ohio State University College of Pharmacy)
• About one in three US pharmacies closed between 2010 and 2021. (USC Schaeffer Center / Health Affairs)
• Pharmacy counts fell in 41 states between 2018 and 2021. (USC Schaeffer Center)
• $5 million-plus was awarded by Oregon in July 2026 for prescription lockers, delivery, and telepharmacy. (Oregon Health Authority, via KBOI)

Pharmacy closures and bankruptcies

Pharmacies have been closing at an increasing rate over the past 15 years. According to research from the University of Southern California, about one in three pharmacies closed between 2010 and 2021. In 41 states, the number of pharmacies went down between 2018 and 2021. Among the pharmacy bankruptcies last year were Rite Aid and Partners Pharmacy Services.

What’s going on around the U.S.?

In Kapa’au, Hawaii, a rural town with a population of about 7,000, the only pharmacy for many miles recently closed. Prescriptions were transferred to a pharmacy in Waimea, about 20 miles away. Kapa’au’s population is primarily made up of residents over age 60, and many have trouble getting to Waimea.

In November 2025, in Gualala, California, the only pharmacy along 60 miles of coastline shut down. Now some residents must travel more than 90 minutes to get prescriptions.

In one neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, a drugstore recently closed, creating a pharmacy desert for those living in the area.

Are there options?

A recent article in AJMC suggested that hospital specialty pharmacies could help with the issues caused by pharmacy deserts. Sometimes hospital pharmacies are the last stable healthcare option in a community and can provide access when needed. They can provide comprehensive care and have experts overseeing medication management. And having a 340B program can increase access, services, and programs that could significantly help patients and their communities.

Learn more about how VytlOne’s 340B pharmacy programs expand access, services, and savings for the communities that need them most.

What should we keep an eye on?

In July 2026, the Oregon Health Authority gave the Pharmacy Foundation of Oregon over $5 million to bring secure prescription lockers, staffed prescription delivery, and telepharmacy services to certain communities in the state, like rural and frontier ones.

Frequently asked questions

What is a pharmacy desert?

A pharmacy desert is an area where residents lack reasonable access to a local pharmacy, usually defined as living more than 10 miles from the nearest one, or shorter distances in dense urban areas without a vehicle. About 48 million Americans, roughly one in seven, live in a pharmacy desert. Rural residents, low-income communities, and communities of color are most affected. The distance matters because it drives poorer medication adherence, harder chronic-disease management, and less access to preventive care.

How many Americans live in pharmacy deserts?

About 48 million Americans, roughly one in seven people, live in a pharmacy desert, according to GoodRx research. The burden is not spread evenly: rural residents, low-income communities, and communities of color are the most likely to lack a nearby pharmacy. The problem is growing as pharmacies close, which pushes more neighborhoods past the distance threshold that defines a desert.

Why are pharmacies closing?

Pharmacies have closed at an increasing rate over the past 15 years. University of Southern California research found that about one in three US pharmacies closed between 2010 and 2021, and the number of pharmacies fell in 41 states between 2018 and 2021. Recent bankruptcies, including Rite Aid, have added to the trend. Independent and lower-income-area pharmacies are especially vulnerable, which is a major driver of new pharmacy deserts.

How do pharmacy deserts affect health?

When people cannot easily reach a pharmacy, the downstream effects are significant: poorer medication adherence, harder management of chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure, and reduced access to preventive services such as vaccinations and screenings. Older adults and people without reliable transportation are hit hardest, as recent closures in rural Hawaii and coastal California show, where some residents now travel an hour or more to fill a prescription.

How can pharmacy deserts be solved?

There is no single fix, but several approaches help. Hospital and health-system specialty pharmacies can serve as a stable access point, offering comprehensive care and expert medication management, and 340B programs can expand the services and access they provide. States are investing too: in July 2026, Oregon awarded more than $5 million for secure prescription lockers, staffed delivery, and telepharmacy in rural and frontier communities. Telepharmacy, delivery, and mapping tools that identify gaps all play a role.

Links of interest

• Pharmacy Deserts: An Update for 2026. VytlOne. February 16, 2026.
• Pharmacy Deserts in the United States: A Continuing Crisis. VytlOne. November 18, 2025.
• Too far to fill: The growing problem of pharmacy deserts in America. VytlOne. June 2, 2025.
• Pharmacy deserts: A growing problem in the U.S. VytlOne. December 2, 2024.
• Wittenauer, Rachel, et al. Locations and characteristics of pharmacy deserts in the United States: a geospatial study. Health Affairs Scholar. March 16, 2024.
• Murphy, Michael and Rodis, Jennifer. The growing crisis of pharmacy deserts. The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy. April 28, 2025.
• Our tool to help you identify pharmacy deserts across the country. National Community Pharmacists Association. April 16, 2026.

Why AI Won’t Replace Pharmacists

By Heather Brooks, Vice President, Pharmacy Services Products, VytlOne

Will AI replace pharmacists? No. In health system pharmacy, AI is augmenting the team, not replacing it. It takes on documentation, data gathering, and routine checks, while pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and Prescription Access Liaisons (PALs) keep authority over clinical decisions, patient counseling, and care. What staff working alongside these tools describe is not replacement but relief: relief from documentation overload, from hours on hold with insurance companies, and from the mental weight of catching errors in a high-volume, high-stakes environment.

The concern is understandable. AI is moving fast, the headlines are loud, and no one wants to feel like their expertise is being automated away. But the professionals who work with AI day to day are not being pushed out. They are being freed up to do the work only a trained, caring human can do. Here are five ways AI is making that difference.

The five ways at a glance

• AI streamlines the prior authorization process for pharmacy staff.
• AI adds a second layer of error checking in high-volume dispensing.
• AI puts complete medication history at every role’s fingertips.
• AI supports clinical decisions with real-time evidence.
• AI reduces administrative burden so staff can focus on patients.

1. AI streamlines the prior authorization process for pharmacy staff

Prior authorizations (PAs) are one of the most time-consuming, frustrating parts of pharmacy work, and one of the most consequential for patients. A delayed PA can mean a delayed therapy start, a gap in critical medication, or a patient who walks away from care they need. This is especially true in health system specialty pharmacy, where PA volume is high. AI is changing the pace by pulling a patient’s medication history, diagnosis codes, clinical documentation, and payer-specific criteria into one place. That consolidation helps PALs, pharmacists, and pharmacy techs build stronger, faster PA submissions without the hours-long hunt across multiple systems.

How this works in practice

A patient arrives to pick up a newly prescribed specialty medication and learns their insurance requires a prior authorization before it can be dispensed. The PAL opens the workflow, and within minutes AI has surfaced the patient’s relevant diagnosis history, current medication list, prior therapy attempts, and the specific clinical criteria the payer requires, all without a phone call to track down records. The pharmacist reviewing the case uses that same medication history to confirm the new therapy is appropriate given what the patient already takes. The PA is submitted the same day. The patient, who expected a days-long wait, gets a call that afternoon with an update and leaves trusting the pharmacy team is in their corner.

2. AI reduces errors in high-volume dispensing

The dispensing environment in health system retail and specialty pharmacy is fast-moving and unforgiving. Medication errors, even small ones, can have serious consequences, and the cognitive load on dispensing pharmacists and pharmacy techs is significant. AI-assisted verification tools give those teams an additional layer of review that does not get tired, distracted, or have a bad day. By flagging potential drug interactions, dose discrepancies, or duplicate therapies before a medication leaves the pharmacy, AI acts as a reliable second check. The pharmacist’s judgment is not replaced. A supportive backstop helps catch what human eyes sometimes miss.

How this works in practice

A pharmacy tech is processing a high volume of prescriptions during a busy afternoon when a new order comes through for a patient already on a complex regimen. The tech prepares the medication and routes it for pharmacist verification. Before the dispensing pharmacist completes the check, the AI verification system flags a potential interaction between the new prescription and a medication the patient takes for a chronic condition, one filled at a different location that might not have been visible in the active queue. The pharmacist confirms the interaction is clinically significant and contacts the prescribing provider to discuss an alternative. The prescription is updated before it reaches the patient. What could have been a harmful outcome becomes a routine clinical intervention.

3. AI puts complete medication history at every role’s fingertips

A patient’s medication history is foundational to nearly every decision in health system pharmacy, and accessing it has historically been anything but simple. Information lives across systems, visits, and providers, and pulling a complete picture together takes time pharmacy staff often do not have. AI changes this by aggregating and presenting medication history in a structured, accessible format, and the benefit reaches every role on the team. When all roles share the same complete picture, handoffs are smoother, assessments are more thorough, and patients work with a team that knows their history.

How this works in practice

A patient is being discharged with a new prescription added during their inpatient stay. The pharmacist conducting discharge medication reconciliation needs to evaluate whether the new therapy is safe alongside the medications the patient took before admission, prescribed by specialists, a community pharmacy, and a mail-order service. Instead of piecing that history together from multiple portals and phone calls, the AI tool surfaces a consolidated medication list in seconds. The pharmacist identifies a duplication of therapy and resolves it before discharge. The patient goes home with the right medications, the right instructions, and a care team working from the same page.

4. AI clinical decision support surfaces real-time evidence

Pharmacists apply an enormous breadth of knowledge in real time: dosing adjustments based on kidney or liver function, drug interaction management, therapeutic alternatives, and formulary considerations that change with each payer. Staying current with clinical guidelines while managing an active caseload is one of the most demanding parts of the role. AI tools that surface relevant clinical evidence, guideline summaries, and decision-support prompts at the point of care reduce that cognitive load without reducing the pharmacist’s authority. The pharmacist still makes the clinical decisions, now with better, faster access to the information that supports them.

How this works in practice

A pharmacist is consulted on a patient whose new prescription requires a dose adjustment due to reduced kidney function found in recent lab work. The pharmacist needs to determine the appropriate dose, confirm there are no additional interaction concerns given the patient’s other medications, and document the recommendation. The AI clinical decision-support tool surfaces the relevant dosing guidance, flags a secondary interaction that warrants monitoring, and pulls the current guideline supporting the adjustment. The pharmacist reviews, applies clinical judgment, and delivers a recommendation to the provider in a fraction of the usual time. The patient’s therapy starts safely and on time.

5. AI reduces administrative burden so staff can focus on patients

Ask anyone in health system pharmacy what they wish they had more time for, and the answer is almost always the patient. The work that drew most pharmacy professionals to the career, counseling someone on a new medication, advocating for access to a therapy, and building the relationship that makes a patient feel cared for, is also the work most likely to get crowded out by administrative demands. AI reclaims that time by streamlining documentation, triaging routine inquiries, and handling the repetitive workflows that quietly consume hours of the day.

How this works in practice

A patient arrives to pick up a new therapy with important instructions, potential side effects, and follow-up steps to understand before leaving. Normally the dispensing pharmacist is already behind, with prescriptions queued for verification, a phone ringing at the counter, and unfinished documentation from earlier. But because AI has handled documentation consolidation for new therapies and reduced manual research on several drug-drug interactions, the pharmacist’s queue is manageable. The pharmacist has the time and bandwidth to work with the patient and make sure they understand their new medication, building trust and improving adherence.

Where this is heading

Across all five areas, AI is moving from reactive to proactive. Prior authorization is heading toward real-time eligibility checks at the point of prescribing and automated status tracking, turning a days-long process into hours. Verification is moving toward predictive risk modeling and AI-enhanced imaging that catches labeling and selection errors under real-world conditions like glare, poor lighting, and awkward angles. Medication history tools are starting to flag gaps and missing records, not just aggregate what exists. Clinical decision support is becoming proactive, surfacing guideline updates and patients due for review before anyone asks. And documentation is increasingly handled by natural language processing that turns clinical interactions into structured notes with minimal staff input. The through-line is the same: AI takes the work that can be automated so pharmacy staff can spend their time where only a human can.

The bottom line

AI in health system retail and specialty pharmacy will not replace the expertise, judgment, and compassion that pharmacy professionals bring to their work. What it can do is take on the administrative tasks that drain those qualities, the documentation and the data gathering. For pharmacists, PALs, and pharmacy techs, the promise of AI is a more supported team, not a smaller one. It is a team where errors are caught before they reach a patient, prior authorizations move faster, and information is readily available, so patient care stays front and center and the daily administrative frustrations of pharmacy practice are muted.

Frequently asked questions

Will AI replace pharmacists?

No. AI augments pharmacists rather than replacing them. It handles documentation, data gathering, and routine checks, while pharmacists keep authority over clinical decisions, counseling, and patient care.

Will AI replace pharmacy technicians?

No. AI takes on repetitive workflows like record retrieval and verification support, which frees pharmacy technicians and Prescription Access Liaisons for higher-value work rather than eliminating their roles.

Will AI take over pharmacy?

The realistic near-term picture is augmentation, not takeover. AI catches errors, speeds prior authorizations, and reduces administrative load, while trained professionals make the judgment calls patient safety depends on.

How is AI used in health system pharmacy today?

AI is used to streamline prior authorizations, add a second layer of error checking in dispensing, consolidate medication history, surface clinical evidence at the point of care, and cut administrative burden so staff can focus on patients.

See how VytlAIQ supports health system pharmacy teams.

Request a demo.

Heather Brooks is a pharmacist and the Vice President of Pharmacy Services Products at VytlOne. She has over 30 years of experience across retail pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, and pharmacy operations. As a pharmacist, Heather believes in AI as a partner in healthcare, working alongside professional judgment. As an operational leader, she’s focused on what that partnership makes possible: leaner processes, faster throughput, and better use of every dollar and every hour.

By Heather Brooks, Vice President, Pharmacy Services Products, VytlOne

How is AI improving the specialty pharmacy patient journey? AI is helping health system specialty pharmacies make the medication journey simpler, faster, safer, and more affordable, improving medication access at every step. It flags affordability barriers early, speeds prior authorizations, closes refill gaps, coordinates care across clinic and payer, and surfaces safety risks sooner, with pharmacists and care teams reviewing every step. The strongest results come from AI working alongside integrated clinic and pharmacy care teams and the patient.

In health system outpatient retail and specialty pharmacy, the patient journey includes coverage checks, prior authorizations (PAs), medication therapy management, refills, delivery, and human support. Below are five ways AI is improving that journey.

The five ways at a glance

• Affordability support becomes proactive instead of reactive.
• Prior authorization moves from fax-and-wait to a guided, faster submission.
• Refills and reminders close adherence gaps before they form.
• Care feels coordinated across clinic, pharmacy, and payer.
• Safety risks are flagged earlier, with humans in the loop.

1. AI makes medication affordability proactive

One of the biggest patient stressors is cost uncertainty, particularly for specialty therapies where copays can be high and assistance programs are complex. In strong health system models, affordability support is already core to the care experience: identifying copay assistance, coordinating financial support, and setting expectations early. AI makes that support faster and more consistent by flagging likely affordability barriers, prioritizing who needs help first, and prompting the right assistance pathways at the right moment, before a patient abandons therapy.

How this works in practice

Marisol arrives at the pharmacy counter expecting a routine pickup. The initial copay is far higher than she expected. Instead of being told to check back, the pharmacy has proactively come up with two options: an assistance pathway and a clinically appropriate alternative to discuss with the clinic. The result is not that AI saved the day, but less panic, fewer delays, and a plan that supports her access to medication.

2. AI speeds prior authorization in specialty pharmacy

For specialty pharmacy patients, delays in prior authorization mean delays in therapy. PAs can take several days and sometimes longer, which is why time to therapy shows up as a top metric in specialty pharmacy performance. AI helps by drafting payer questionnaire responses, extracting relevant clinical evidence, and reducing the time staff spend rekeying information. AI can reduce work time per authorization from as much as 25 minutes to about five minutes, and submissions can go in about a day earlier.

How this works in practice

Darryl is prescribed a new, high-cost injectable after a flare-up. Historically, starting this drug takes weeks. VytlOne’s Prescription Access Liaisons can use AI-assisted drafting of the PA, shortening the time between prescribed and in hand. The pharmacist reviews for accuracy, and the request goes out sooner. The patient sees the care plan moving forward instead of stuck in paperwork.

3. AI closes refill gaps and improves medication adherence

Nonadherence often is not dramatic. It is small gaps: a refill missed during a busy week, a pickup delayed, a message forgotten. Digital reminders and nudges, especially text-based ones, are patient-friendly, scalable ways to reduce refill gaps. AI makes this smarter by timing outreach based on behavior patterns, channel preference, and risk signals rather than a fixed day 28 text, and it does so without burying pharmacy staff in manual calls.

How this works in practice

Sam manages diabetes medications, blood pressure medications, and a statin, along with work and family. An AI-supported refill program notices a refill gap forming, sends a gentle nudge, and offers a quick deliver-or-pickup option. Sam stays on track without spending 30 minutes on hold.

4. AI coordinates care across clinic, pharmacy, and payer

Patients often experience the system as fragmented: the clinic says one thing, the payer says another, and the pharmacy is left translating. VytlOne’s health system specialty pharmacy models emphasize coordination by embedding Prescription Access Liaisons in provider offices, which allows for consistent updates and fewer dropped handoffs. AI improves coordination by acting like a workflow air traffic controller: routing tasks, flagging missing information, and keeping statuses visible so the next best action is obvious to the team. That visibility and orchestration turns a chaotic journey into a predictable one.

How this works in practice

The prescriber tells Nina the pharmacy will have her prescription ready. Instead of arriving to learn the prescription must be changed to the insurance formulary product, Nina gets predictable updates: benefits verified, PA submitted or alternates discussed with the prescriber, assistance in progress, delivery scheduled. Her journey from prescriber to medication in hand is handled with white-glove service.

5. AI flags medication safety risks earlier, with humans in the loop

Medication safety is not just dispensing accuracy. It also includes duplicate therapies, wrong-dose risks, and missed clinical signals. AI can flag potential problems early, and the critical design point is human review, which allows for proactive discussions among the prescriber, pharmacist, and patient.

How this works in practice

George has a medication change after a hospitalization. The system flags a possible duplication risk with a home medication. The pharmacist confirms with George that he has the duplicate at home, and the final regimen accounts for it while avoiding duplicative therapy. George feels someone is paying attention, and his confidence in his care team rises.

Where this is heading

Across all five areas, AI is shifting specialty pharmacy from reactive to anticipatory. Expect affordability support to move closer to real time, predicting cost barriers before a prescription is finalized. Prior authorization is trending toward proactive readiness, with AI predicting friction and helping teams build the approval packet upfront. Refill support is becoming anticipatory, catching insurance changes and shipment constraints before they become emergencies. Coordination is getting more structured, and safety is moving toward continuous medication surveillance that points pharmacists to the highest risk first.

A better experience, because the basics work better

Health system outpatient retail and specialty pharmacies are already positioned differently: closer to the clinic, connected to the care plan, and built to support medication access end to end. Used well, AI strengthens this model. Cost conversations happen earlier, authorizations move with fewer delays, refills do not slip into gaps, and safety risks are flagged sooner. The patient journey becomes more predictable and supported, and pharmacy teams get more time back for counseling and problem-solving instead of paperwork.

Frequently asked questions

How does AI improve the specialty pharmacy patient journey?

AI improves the specialty pharmacy patient journey by flagging affordability barriers early, drafting and speeding prior authorizations, timing refill reminders to reduce adherence gaps, coordinating tasks across clinic, pharmacy, and payer, and surfacing medication safety risks for pharmacist review.

Does AI replace pharmacists in the medication journey?

No. AI handles routing, drafting, and pattern detection, while pharmacists and care teams review and make the clinical decisions. Human review is the design point, not an afterthought.

How does AI improve medication affordability for specialty patients?

AI flags likely affordability barriers, prioritizes who needs help first, and prompts the right copay assistance and financial support pathways early, before cost forces a patient to abandon therapy.

How does AI reduce prior authorization delays?

AI drafts payer questionnaire responses, extracts relevant clinical evidence, and cuts the time staff spend rekeying information, so submissions go out sooner and time to therapy shortens.

See how VytlAIQ approaches AI for the specialty pharmacy patient journey.

Request a demo.

Heather Brooks is a pharmacist and the Vice President of Pharmacy Services Products at VytlOne. She has over 30 years of experience across retail pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, and pharmacy operations. As a pharmacist, Heather believes in AI as a partner in healthcare, working alongside professional judgment. As an operational leader, she’s focused on what that partnership makes possible: leaner processes, faster throughput, and better use of every dollar and every hour.

5 Things Pharmacy Leaders Should Learn

By Kim Tzoumakas, CEO, VytlOne

Building AI in health system pharmacy means putting the operational foundation in place first and then using AI to amplify it. In practice, that means AI works best when it augments experienced pharmacy teams rather than replacing them: catching compliance gaps before they become denials, handling repetitive work, and freeing pharmacists and liaisons to spend their judgment where it changes patient outcomes. The technology is rarely the obstacle. Operational clarity is.

Technology is never really the hard part. I wish it were because that would make my job easier. The hard part is sequencing, culture, and building the operational foundation that technology can amplify.

I spent years working inside health systems, early on as an attorney advising on strategy, hearing the same conversations again and again: not enough capital to improve outcomes or provide critical services. The 340B compliance gaps I saw were rarely about bad intentions. They came from programs outpaced by complexity and heavy regulatory change, moving faster than teams could manage. I watched health systems lose money they didn’t have to lose, or take overly conservative stances out of fear of regulatory audits. It stuck with me, and it’s the lens I bring to every leadership decision I make today.

Since then, I’ve had the privilege of leading transformation and growth across three very different multi-state healthcare organizations: oncology, radiology, and now pharmacy. These are different clinical worlds, but the same lesson keeps showing up. The technology is rarely the obstacle. Operational clarity and focus are. Get those right and success tends to follow almost naturally. Skip them and AI just helps you move faster in the wrong direction.

Why 340B complexity makes the operational foundation non-negotiable

The 340B program has grown far more complex. There are manufacturer restrictions, audit exposure, and contract pharmacy scrutiny. All of it lands on teams that are also trying to take care of patients every day, often with limited resources. When I joined VytlOne, I found a pharmacy operational team with real depth. What we didn’t have 18 months ago was one unified platform that could work across all of pharmacy operations with the speed and visibility this moment needs.

Building VytlAIQ ourselves, rather than buying something and bolting it on, was deliberate. What we had at the start was unique and would set us apart: a century of pharmacy history, three decades of managing health system pharmacies, and operational data that is real, clean, and ours.

When a health system leader is skeptical of AI, I understand it, and it usually works in our favor. We did not want to be a technology player chasing short-term wins. Instead, we built a platform to augment teams in hospitals as experienced as the ones inside VytlOne. There is a real difference between AI shaped by people who have actually run 340B workflows and a product built by a technology player.

Where AI transformation stalls in health systems

Most transformation struggles in the space between a confident technology decision and the operational reality underneath it. What I am proudest of with VytlAIQ is not the technology itself. It is what it frees people to do: catch the small things that would otherwise become denials or missed opportunities, and quietly handle the work that used to consume pharmacists’, liaisons’, and compliance teams’ time. It does not replace people. It gives them room to use their judgment where it matters most, which is keeping patients on their medicines and delivering care that technology alone never will.

What I’ve come to believe about AI and pharmacy margin

Culture shapes how well technology lands. The hardest conversations are often with the people in the trenches who do not have the bandwidth to assess how the right resources and partners could strengthen operations they have already made successful. That assessment should never feel like a threat or a sign of failure. It reflects leadership and financial rigor at the moment hospitals need both most.

Pharmacy should be driving significant investment in every hospital through the margin it can generate. Without those dollars, patients suffer and services lag across the healthcare system. VytlAIQ exists to augment and support pharmacy teams so they can generate the margin that lets hospitals reinvest in critical programs.

Key Takeaways

• In health system pharmacy, the operational foundation, not the technology, decides whether AI delivers.
• 340B complexity (manufacturer restrictions, audit exposure, contract pharmacy scrutiny) makes that foundation non-negotiable.
• VytlOne built VytlAIQ in house to augment experienced pharmacy teams, not replace them.
• Done right, AI in health system pharmacy protects margin, and that margin lets hospitals reinvest in patient care.

FAQs

What does building AI in health system pharmacy actually require?
It requires an operational foundation first. AI amplifies whatever process it lands on, so operational clarity has to come before the technology. Without it, AI just accelerates existing problems.

Does AI replace pharmacists in health systems?
No. Used well, AI in health system pharmacy augments pharmacists, liaisons, and compliance teams by handling repetitive work and catching issues early, which frees them to apply clinical judgment where it most affects patient outcomes.

How does AI in health system pharmacy affect 340B compliance?
It helps teams keep pace with 340B complexity, including manufacturer restrictions, audit exposure, and contract pharmacy scrutiny, by surfacing gaps before they become denials or missed opportunities.

How does AI in health system pharmacy support hospital margin?
By protecting the margin pharmacy generates, AI helps hospitals reinvest in critical programs and services. The goal is not cost-cutting; it is freeing skilled teams to generate value.

Kim Tzoumakas is the CEO of VytlOne. 

VytlOne has been named a 2026 Top Workplace by AZ Central, marking the sixth consecutive year the company has earned this distinction. The recognition is based entirely on employee feedback collected through a confidential, third-party survey administered by Energage LLC, a leading employee engagement technology partner. The survey measures the employee experience across key themes, including feeling Respected & Supported, Enabled to Grow, and Empowered to Execute.

“Awards like this are not won by leadership — they are earned by our people,” said Amy Garrigues, president, VytlOne PBM. “Being named Arizona Top Workplace for the sixth consecutive year is a testament to the incredible team members who make our culture stronger every day.”

“Earning a Top Workplaces award is a badge of honor for companies, especially because it comes authentically from their employees,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “That’s something to be proud of. In today’s market, leaders must ensure they’re allowing employees to have a voice and be heard. That’s paramount. Top Workplaces do this, and it pays dividends.”

About VytlOne 
VytlOne is the nation’s only independent, fully integrated total pharmacy solutions partner. By combining pharmacy operations, 340B management, specialty pharmacy, pharmacy benefit management, and patient affordability solutions, VytlOne is dedicated to helping mission-driven hospitals and healthcare providers improve outcomes, unlock revenue, and reinvest in healthier healthcare communities.

At VytlOne, our client’s mission is our mission. VytlOne works as an extension of our client and supports and enables our partners to drive sustainable revenue growth while achieving optimal outcomes for their patients, employees, and communities. 

About Energage

Making the world a better place to work together.^TM

Energage is a purpose-driven company that helps organizations turn employee feedback into useful business intelligence and credible employer recognition through Top Workplaces. Built on 20 years of culture research and the results from 30 million employees surveyed across more than 80,000 organizations, Energage delivers the most accurate competitive benchmark available. With access to a unique combination of patented analytic tools and expert guidance, Energage customers lead the competition with an engaged workforce and an opportunity to gain recognition for their people-first approach to culture. For more information or to nominate your organization, visit energage.com or topworkplaces.com.

Read the press release. 

5 Things Pharmacy Leaders Should Learn

By Joel Wright, President of Pharmacy Services, VytlOne

Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving from pilot projects into the core of pharmacy operations. In health system pharmacy and 340B programs, that shift carries more weight than almost anywhere else, because here AI touches patient access, compliance risk, and the use of limited resources across vulnerable populations.

After working inside these programs, the lesson I keep returning to is simple. The value of AI is not decided by how advanced it is. It is decided by how thoughtfully it is governed and how closely it stays tied to patient outcomes.

Here are five things every pharmacy leader should learn before adopting it.

1. AI in pharmacy is a governance decision, not a technology purchase

Most technology decisions reside within IT. AI in a health system-owned pharmacy extends far beyond technology, enabling smarter patient outreach, more effective resource allocation, and greater visibility into 340B opportunities. As AI becomes a strategic driver of outcomes, governance is what makes sure that innovation is applied responsibly and consistently.

Effective governance includes:

• Clear accountability for AI-enabled decision support.
• Oversight of any model that influences outreach or prioritization.
• Continuous monitoring for differential effects across patient populations and payer types.
• Transparency about how recommendations are generated.
• The ability for pharmacists and clinicians to override automated guidance.

Before you evaluate a single feature, answer one question. When AI influences a decision, who is accountable for it?

2. Responsible AI should reduce bias and widen access, not narrow it

AI has the power to enhance decision-making and operational performance. With the right governance and design principles, organizations can proactively address potential biases and support more consistent outcomes.

Designed responsibly, AI does the opposite of what people fear. By expanding the data signals it considers, incorporating human oversight, and regularly testing for unintended disparities, it can surface patients who might otherwise be missed, including those who are newly diagnosed or facing barriers like affordability and access. In a pharmacy that sits inside the clinical care continuum, that capability lets an organization extend access more intentionally and strengthen patient trust.

3. The point of AI is action, not better reports

Traditional pharmacy analytics are good at explaining what already happened. Revenue and cost trends, capture rates, adherence percentages. What reporting rarely tells a team is what to do next.

For AI to change that, it has to be grounded in a holistic data strategy. Most of the data that supports pharmacy decisions is scattered across clinical systems, pharmacy platforms, payer feeds, and financial tools, or never captured at all. Connecting those sources, and delivering insight in time to influence care, is the foundation.

The next evolution of pharmacy intelligence surfaces issues while prescriptions and referrals are still upstream, prioritizes intervention based on clinical and operational context, and routes work to the right team members. That move from hindsight to insight is where AI starts to earn its place.

4. Human review is the most important design point

The most important design point in any responsible system is human review. AI can surface insights and opportunities, but clinicians and pharmacy teams remain responsible for every care and operational decision.

Pharmacists and clinicians need a real ability to override automated recommendations, not a checkbox that exists on paper. That is what keeps AI aligned with pharmacy operations, 340B requirements, and patient safety, while still accelerating the work.

5. Where your AI comes from matters

As adoption accelerates, the source of the intelligence matters as much as the intelligence itself. Many of the solutions entering the market today are built by strong engineering teams with no pharmacists, no 340B compliance depth, and no history operating inside the complexity of a health system.

The foundation needs to be built and validated by pharmacists and operators who have actually worked inside the systems the technology intends to serve.

That is the thinking behind VytlAIQ, our AI enabled pharmacy intelligence platform built specifically for health system environments. It is designed around continuous 340B eligibility review, real time performance visibility across pharmacy operations, workflow automation, and next best action guidance to support clinical decision making. The point is not the feature list. The point is that responsible AI shows up as integrated workflows and data models aligned with compliance, care delivery, and equity goals.

Looking ahead: responsible AI and sustainable 340B performance

AI has real potential to help health system pharmacies navigate the growing complexity of 340B, specialty pharmacy, and access management. Its value will not be determined by sophistication alone. It will be determined by how thoughtfully it is governed, how transparently it operates, and how closely it remains tied to patient outcomes.

For organizations willing to lead with accountability and clinical oversight, AI becomes a tool that supports sustainable 340B performance while advancing the core mission of equitable, high-quality care.

See how VytlAIQ approaches responsible AI for health system pharmacy. Request a demo.

Joel Wright is President of Pharmacy Services at VytlOne. He can be reached at pharmacyservices@vytlone.com.

Summary

• U.S. drug shortages remain widespread in June 2026, with 187 active shortages as of May 20, down slightly from earlier in the year. New shortages continue to affect cancer drugs, pain medications, contrast agents, and hormone therapies.
• Injectable medicines remain the most vulnerable category, making up 63% of drugs on the 2025 Vulnerable Medicine List, while long-running shortages continue for ADHD medications, sterile saline, Bicillin L-A, and estrogen patches.
• Drug shortages are increasing pressure on patients, providers, and health systems through treatment delays, substitution challenges, and nearly $900 million in annual labor costs, while AI-based supply chain monitoring may help identify disruptions earlier.

What drugs are currently in shortage?

As of May 20, 2026, there are 187 drug shortages, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. This is down from 195 on February 27, 2026.

Several new drugs went into shortage during April and May. Some of these include:

1. Benzphetamine hydrochloride tablets- an appetite suppressant
2. Oxaliplatin injection-used with other drugs to treat advanced cancer of the colon or rectum
3. Ifosfamide injection– used with other drugs to treat cancer of the testicles
4. Morphine sulfate extended-release tablets– used to manage severe, chronic pain
5. Romidepsin injection kits– used to treat cutaneous T-cell lymphoma in patients who have received at least one previous treatment
6. Ioversol injection– used to help diagnose problems with blood vessels, organs, or tissues in the body
7. Iohexol injection– a contrast agent used to create pictures of different body parts during some types of medical procedures
8. Lidocaine with epinephrine injection– an injection that causes numbness or loss of feeling for people having surgery or for some procedures
9. Flumazenil injection– reverses the effects of benzodiazepines and can also be used to treat overdoses
10. Progesterone capsules– helps prevent changes in uterus in women who take conjugated estrogen after menopause, regulates menstrual cycle in women who are menstruating, and treats amenorrhea in women who are menstruating

What drug classes are in shortage?

The US Pharmacopeia (USP) recently performed an analysis called the 2025 Vulnerable Medicine List, which  found that there are 100 “clinically important medicines” most at risk of disruption. About 30% of these 100 drugs are currently in shortage. According to the list, injectable drugs make up 63% of these vulnerable medicines. Drugs that come in tablet or capsule form make up 22% of vulnerable medicines.

A recent study reviewed drug shortages between 2001 and June 2024 and found that ophthalmic medications make up about 15% of drug shortages.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications have been in shortage for about four years. A recent report indicated that the causes for the shortage were production cutbacks in some manufacturers and a reduction of imports of raw amphetamines and slight declines in phenylacetone, a controlled substance.

Sterile saline and components of parenteral nutrition have also been in shortage for long periods of time.

In March 2026, the FDA noted the limited availability of Bicillin® L-A, a type of penicillin which is the only recommended treatment for pregnant women and babies with congenital syphilis. The shortage of this drug is expected to continue through the end of 2027.

Additionally, estrogen patches to treat menopause symptoms have been in shortage, and that shortage could last up to three years. In November 2025, the FDA removed a black box warning for them and use of these patches increased.

What are the effects of drug shortages?

Drug shortages can have a profound impact on people. For example,  one in every 10 people with cancer noted that they were affected by drug shortages. Specifically, nearly 70% said they had trouble finding a substitute for their medication and 45% said they encountered delays in treatment.

People living in pharmacy deserts can be at risk, too. When people live in areas with little pharmacy access, they may not have the option to travel to various local pharmacies to try to find one that has their medicine in stock.  People in well-serviced urban areas often won’t have to face this issue.  (To see VytlOne’s coverage of pharmacy deserts, please go to Pharmacy Deserts: An Update for 2026).

Shortages can also have an impact on healthcare costs.  U.S. hospitals said that they spent about 20 million hours per year in 2024 managing shortages while associated costs came to almost $900 million. Labor costs related to drug shortages were $894 million in 2024.

How are local and world events impacting drug shortages?

The war in Iran, which began earlier this year, could worsen drug shortages by disrupting global supply chains. Many essential medicines—especially low-cost generics—depend on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and chemical precursors sourced from or shipped through the Middle East and South Asia, which often move through the Strait of Hormuz. Military conflict could interrupt shipping, drive up energy and insurance costs, and limit access to petrochemicals used in drug manufacturing. That, in turn, could raise production costs.

Additionally, the Trump administration’s tariff policies could affect drug shortages. The U.S. relies heavily on foreign countries to manufacture both APIs and finished drug products. China, for example, supplies a large percentage of APIs and India produces a large percentage of generic medicines.  Tariffs on these imports could drive up manufacturing costs. Because generic drugmakers operate on such thin margins, even minor cost increases could make it economically unwise to produce generics—and then the companies could decide to discontinue making them. Branded drugs may absorb those costs through price increases.

Europe is also tackling the issue of drug shortages. In May, the EU Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement related to the increase in supplies of critical medicines and management of possible drug shortages. The region hopes to lessen its reliance on India, China, and the U.S. It also wants to reduce the burden on member states to request supplies and to more freely share information about supplies.

Can AI be used in drug shortage management?

AI can now be used to find potential supply chain disruptions. This could mean that instead of simply reacting to drug shortages, preventing them may be possible due to earlier identification of supply chain issues. Better insight into data related to sourcing and distribution could help pharmacists make faster decisions before shortages become problematic.

While the total number of drug shortages has declined slightly, new shortages and long-term supply gaps indicate a fragile supply system. Structural challenges continue to have an impact on access to essential medications.

VytlOne actively monitors drug shortages and proactively identifies alternatives to reduce patient impact.

by Bren Tiner

Progress in cystic fibrosis doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because a dedicated community refuses to stay silent.

Because CF is classified as a rare orphan disease, it affects a relatively small number of people globally and rarely gets the automatic spotlight or federal funding of more common illnesses. That is why public awareness and aggressive publicity are our most valuable currencies; they are the tools we must use to secure the private funding that drives life-saving research forward. We need more research, and that science requires money.

As a parent who has walked this path alongside a child with CF, I understand what this community carries. Our families have always had to be the loudest voices in the room to ensure our children are never overlooked or forgotten.

My son Michael carried this journey with strength and determination, and though he is no longer with us, he is the reason I keep showing up. I show up for him and for every patient and family still fighting for their breakthrough. Honoring Michael means never stopping.

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) events are the lifeblood of this mission. Every dollar from these events pushes science forward and brings a cure that much closer. The medical progress made over the last few decades is nothing short of miraculous, but our work is far from finished, and science cannot move forward without our financial support.

Every step we take, every story we share, and every dollar we raise keeps that momentum moving forward, until the day “CF” stands for “Cure Found.”

Bren Tiner works in our Birmingham location and has been with VytlOne for 13 years. Her son, Michael, died in 2021 at the age of 26 from causes not related to CF.