Prescription Drug Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC) Increases

This dataset is comprised of data submitted to HCAI by prescription drug manufacturers for wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) increases that exceed the statutorily-mandated WAC increase threshold of an increase of more than 16% above the WAC of the drug product on December 31 of the calendar year three years prior to the current calendar year. This threshold applies to prescription drug products with a WAC greater than $40 for a course of therapy. Required WAC increase reports are to be submitted to HCAI within a month after the end of the quarter in which the WAC increase went into effect. Please see the statute and regulations for additional information regarding reporting thresholds and report due dates.

Key data elements in this dataset include the National Drug Code (NDC) maintained by the FDA, narrative descriptions of the reasons for the increase in WAC, and the five-year history of WAC increases for the NDC. A WAC Increase Report consists of 27 data elements that have been divided into two separate Excel data sets: Prescription Drug WAC Increase and Prescription Drug WAC Increase – 5 Year History. The datasets include manufacturer WAC Increase Reports received since January 1, 2019. The Prescription Drugs WAC Increase dataset consists of the information submitted by prescription drug manufacturers that pertains to the current WAC increase of a given report, including the amount of the current increase, the WAC after increase, and the effective date of the increase. The Prescription Drugs WAC Increase – 5 Year History dataset consists of the information submitted by prescription drug manufacturers for the data elements that comprise the 5-year history of WAC increases of a given report, including the amount of each increase and their effective dates.

There are 2 types of WAC Increase datasets below: Monthly and Annual. The Monthly datasets include the data in completed reports submitted by manufacturers for calendar year 2025, as of April 7, 2025. The Annual datasets include data in completed reports submitted by manufacturers for the specified year. The datasets may include reports that do not meet the specified minimum thresholds for reporting.

The Quick Guide explaining how to link the information in each data set to form complete reports is here: https://hcai.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/QuickGuide_LinkingTheDatasets.pdf

The program regulations are available here: https://hcai.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CTRx-Regulations-Text.pdf

The data format and file specifications are available here: https://hcai.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Format-and-File-Specifications-version-2.0-ada.pdf

DATA NOTES: Due to recent changes in Excel, it is not recommended that you save these files to .csv format. If you do, when importing back into Excel the leading zeros in the NDC number column will be dropped. If you need to save it into a different format other than .xlsx it must be .txt

DATA UPDATES: Annual datasets of reports from the preceding year are reviewed in the second half of the current year to identify if any revisions or additions have been made since the original release of the datasets. If revisions or additions have been found, an update of the datasets will be released. Datasets will be clearly marked with 'Updated' in their titles for convenient identification. Not all datasets may require an updated release. The review of previously released datasets will only be conducted once to determine if an updated release is necessary. Datasets with revisions or additions that may have been made after the one-time review can be requested. These requests should be sent via email to ctrx@hcai.ca.gov. Due to regulatory changes that went into effect April 1, 2024, reports submitted prior to April 1, 2024, will include the data field "Unit Sales Volume in US" and reports submitted on or after April 1, 2024, will instead include "Total Volume of Gross Sales in US Dollars".