Our experts have examined this program in litigation and published research and have testified about it before Congress and other regulatory bodies. Their work has analyzed the implications of the 340B program and its impact on consumers, healthcare providers, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Our litigation experience includes analysis of:
- Expansion of covered entities and contract pharmacy participation in the 340B program over time
- Benefits and costs of the 340B program for various stakeholders
- Contract pharmacy arrangements, third-party administrator agreements, and fee structures
- 340B claim identification in rebate, patient diversion, and duplicate discount disputes
- Alleged patient steering to institutional or contract pharmacies
Featured Experts
Featured Experts
Gautam Gowrisankaran
Professor of Economics,
Columbia University;
Senior Advisor, Cornerstone Research
Gautam Gowrisankaran is an expert in industrial organization, healthcare economics, and energy and environmental economics. Professor Gowrisankaran has analyzed issues of market definition and market power, the competitive effects of mergers, and claims of attempted monopolization. He has also addressed allegations of tying, foreclosure, and other exclusionary practices arising in such industries as healthcare, consumer goods, high-tech products, payment services, and transportation.
An experienced expert witness, Professor Gowrisankaran has been retained by federal and state agencies as well as by private clients in numerous high-profile mergers, antitrust litigation matters, and consumer class actions. His trial testimony includes United States of America et al. v. JetBlue Airways Corporation and Spirit Airlines Inc.; United States et al. v. UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Change Healthcare Inc.; Sidibe v. Sutter Health; In re: Purdue Pharma L.P. et al.; and Federal Trade Commission v. Hackensack Meridian Health Inc. and Englewood Healthcare Foundation. He has consulted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on retail and technology issues and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on airline matters and mergers in the healthcare space.
In his research, Professor Gowrisankaran conducts both theoretical and empirical studies of topics related to industrial organization and competition. He has particular expertise in industries that are highly regulated and exhibit rapid technological change, such as healthcare and energy, as well as markets in which prices are negotiated.
One focus of Professor Gowrisankaran’s recent research is energy, including renewable energy integration, electricity regulation in the presence of energy transitions, and enforcement of environmental laws. He has also analyzed a variety of issues in healthcare markets, such as hospital competition, the impact of countervailing health insurer market power, and the price impact of hospital mergers.
A prolific author, Professor Gowrisankaran has published research in leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review, Econometrica, and the Journal of Political Economy. He has served on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including the American Economic Review and the RAND Journal of Economics. In addition, Professor Gowrisankaran has written analyses for a legal audience, including in the Antitrust Law Journal. He has been honored with best paper awards and recommended by Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) as a Global Elite Thought Leader, leading competition economist, and consulting expert in the competition field.
Global Competition Review recognized Professor Gowrisankaran in its inaugural list of the world’s most important antitrust academics. He was also honored in Lexology’s Client Choice lists in 2022 and 2025.
Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Professor Gowrisankaran was a tenured professor of economics and the Peter and Nancy Salter Chair in Healthcare Management at the University of Arizona. He has held visiting academic appointments at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Yale University, and Harvard University, among others.
Professor Gowrisankaran serves on the U.S. Congressional Budget Office Health Advisory Panel. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
Featured Experts
Alice Chen
Associate Professor,
Sol Price School of Public Policy;
Senior Fellow,
Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics,
University of Southern California
Alice Chen specializes in health economics and labor economics. Professor Chen has expertise in a range of issues involving healthcare and pharmaceutical firms, including pharmaceutical competition and innovation, healthcare labor markets, and provider payment models.
Professor Chen has served as a consulting damages expert on life sciences matters, estimating the impact of allegedly false pharmaceutical marketing on prescription drug sales. In healthcare matters, she has offered written and deposition testimony on health insurance plan design in relation to class certification. She has testified at trial on statistical analyses of clinical trial data and regulatory drug approval. Professor Chen has also provided healthcare consulting services to pharmaceutical companies, including analyses of drug clinical trial data.
Professor Chen has deep expertise in the 340B Drug Pricing Program and has been retained as a testifying expert on behalf of a drug manufacturer in a litigation matter where she analyzed changes over time in the program with respect to expansion in the number of covered hospitals and pharmacies participating in the program. She has also analyzed whether such program expansion has translated into increased provision of uncompensated health care by hospitals, improvements in patient health outcomes, and changes in drug utilization.
Professor Chen’s research has focused on improving the efficiency of healthcare markets, biologics and biosimilars innovation and competition, and the drivers and impacts of healthcare provider behavior. Her recent research analyzes the impact of Medicare policies on provider treatment decisions and healthcare outcomes and potential impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act on drug competition, pricing, and innovation. Professor Chen has presented her work before regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and the Congressional Budget Office.
Professor Chen has published articles in leading economics, health policy, and medical journals, including the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Health Affairs, JAMA Internal Medicine, and the Journal of Health Economics. Her research has also been cited in major media outlets, including Bloomberg, CBS News, Forbes, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
At USC Price, Professor Chen teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in health economics and health finance. The USC Health Administration Graduate Program has recognized her as Outstanding Faculty of the Year.
Featured Experts
Erin Trish
Associate Professor,
Department of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics,
Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Co-Director, Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics,
University of Southern California
Erin Trish is an expert in pharmaceutical and healthcare economics. Her research focuses on the intersection of public policy and competition in healthcare and pharmaceutical markets, including Medicare, the No Surprises Act (NSA), the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), insurer and hospital market concentration, pharmaceutical pricing, and the role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
Professor Trish has served as an expert witness in multiple life sciences and healthcare matters and has both trial and deposition experience. She has provided expert testimony in arbitration and in litigation involving the False Claims Act, price fixing and market allocation, killer acquisitions, and the 340B drug pricing program.
In addition, Professor Trish has testified before the U.S. Congress and in the California State Assembly, and presented her research at numerous federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Congressional Budget Office.
In her research focused on the pharmaceutical industry, Professor Trish analyzes market structure, prescription drug expenditures, pharmacy networks, and firms’ financial incentives. She is a leading expert on brand and generic drug markets, PBMs, and the funding and benefit design of Medicare Part D, Medicaid, and commercial prescription drug insurance.
Professor Trish’s healthcare research addresses regulation and policy, market participants, and outcomes. Her expertise includes market concentration and vertical integration, payor-provider bargaining, out-of-network reimbursement for emergency care, commercial insurance, Medicare Advantage, and exchange market functioning.
Professor Trish publishes in leading health policy, health economics, and medical journals. Her work has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, the American Journal of Managed Care, and the Journal of Health Economics, among others. She has won several research awards, notably the Seema S. Sonnad Emerging Leader in Managed Care Research Award, which recognizes early achievements in the field and potential for exceptional long-term contributions.
At USC, Professor Trish teaches executive-level courses in health policy and management at the Marshall School of Business. She also serves as a nonresident fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution.
Featured Experts
Sayeh Nikpay
Associate Professor, Division of Health Policy & Management,
School of Public Health,
University of Minnesota
Sayeh Nikpay is a health policy economist specializing in the 340B Drug Pricing Program, a federal program that allows certain hospitals and federal grantees to purchase discounted prescription drugs. In her research, Professor Nikpay applies econometric and statistical techniques to evaluate how the 340B program affects hospital safety net engagement, pharmaceutical spending, and patient affordability. She has also analyzed the growth of retail pharmacies that dispense prescriptions through the 340B program.
Professor Nikpay publishes her research in leading healthcare and economics journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, the American Journal of Managed Care, JAMA Health Forum, and the Journal of Public Economics. Her coauthored article on 340B participation and hospital safety net engagement received Health Services Research’s John M. Eisenberg Article-of-the-Year Award for outstanding, original research. The New York Times and the Washington Post have cited Professor Nikpay’s work.
Professor Nikpay speaks widely on health economics and healthcare policy subjects and has given presentations at universities and professional associations in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
At the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Professor Nikpay teaches statistics, healthcare delivery, economics, and policy courses. Previously, she served on the faculty of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Health Policy and as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.
Professor Nikpay served as a staff economist at the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers shortly after the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Featured Insights
5 Questions with Sayeh Nikpay: The 340B Drug Pricing Program
An interview by Cornerstone Research with Sayeh Nikpay
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We interview Professor Sayeh Nikpay of the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, who shares her insights into the 340B program, its role in the healthcare safety net, implementation challenges, and related legal matters.
Pharma Law USA
Panel with Benjamin Fuller
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Benjamin Fuller spoke on a panel titled “Navigating 340B Drug Program Litigation.” Panelists discussed the current state of 340B litigation, including related challenges and complexities, as well with potential ways to enhance the program.
Recent court ruling could increase the size and administrative complexity of the 340B program
An article published in Health Affairs Scholar by Sayeh Nikpay and J.P. Bruno
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The 340B program allows certain hospitals and clinics to use outpatient drugs purchased at substantial discounts on insured patients, generating profits to fund care. The size of these profits depends on the number of prescriptions filled by participating hospital or clinics’ insured patients that also meet the Health Resources and Services Agency’s definition of an eligible patient. A recent court case has challenged the Agency’s longstanding definition of a patient, resulting in new definition that could significantly expand the size of the program and create conflicts when an insured patient satisfies the new definition for more than one hospital or clinic participating in the program. In this paper, we use Medicare Part D data from 2018 to simulate the proportion of prescription drug fills eligible for 340B discounts and total program spending under both existing and new definitions. We found that the new definition could increase the share of 340B-eligible fills in Medicare Part D by 25%, from 12% of fills to 16%, and that the share of fills subject to a conflict could double, from 1% of fills to 1%-2%. Our results suggest that the new definition could increase covered entities’ 340B profits by roughly a third.
The annual conference of the American Society of Health Economists
Sayeh Nikpay and J.P. Bruno presented on the 340B drug pricing program
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Sayeh Nikpay chaired and spoke on several panels at ASHEcon 2024, a conference that provides a platform for sharing findings, methods, and insights in health economics and related topics. The panels on which she discussed 340B-related topics include:
- “Net Spending and Sources of Growth in the 340B Drug Pricing Program”
- “Exploring the Rapid Growth of 340B Contract Pharmacies Among STD and HIV Clinics in the U.S. Safety Net”
- “Only One Can Win – Medicaid Drug Rebates and 340B Discounts”
- “Estimated Impact of New 340B Patient Definitions on the Size of the 340B Program in Medicare”
- “Impact of 340B Exposure on Treatment Cost of Medicare Patients with Cancer”
J.P. Bruno also authored research that was presented at several sessions, including:
- “How Leaky Is the Bucket? Network Effects of 340B Contract Pharmacies”
- “Does 340B Status Affect Pharmacy Demand? Evidence from Medicare Part D Plans”
- “Estimated Impact of New 340B Patient Definitions on the Size of the 340B Program in Medicare”
Featured Professionals
Our professionals have experience related to the 340B drug pricing program and its impacts on the life sciences industry.
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Maria Salgado
Maria Salgado
Vice President
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Zoya Marriott
Zoya Marriott
Vice President
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J.P. Bruno
J.P. Bruno
Manager