P&T Committee: How Pharmacy and Therapeutics Teams Decide What Drugs You Get
When a hospital or insurance plan decides whether to cover a new drug, it’s not a doctor or a CEO making that call alone. It’s the P&T committee, a group of pharmacists, doctors, and administrators who evaluate drugs for safety, cost, and clinical value. Also known as the Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee, this team is the hidden gatekeeper of your medication list. If a drug isn’t on their approved formulary, you might pay more, wait longer, or get stuck with an older option—even if your doctor wants the new one.
The P&T committee doesn’t work in a vacuum. They look at real-world data: how a drug performs compared to others, how much it costs per dose, what side effects show up in trials, and whether it actually improves outcomes. They rely on evidence—not marketing. You’ll see this in posts about formulary check, the process clinicians use to verify which drugs are covered by insurance before prescribing, or how generic drug exclusivity, a rule that lets the first generic maker a temporary edge to undercut brand prices affects what ends up on the formulary. These aren’t abstract rules. They’re daily decisions that shape what you can afford and what works for you.
Some drugs get rejected not because they’re unsafe, but because they’re too expensive for the benefit. Others get added because they solve a real problem—like bempedoic acid for statin-intolerant patients, or fluconazole when PPIs mess with other antifungals. The P&T committee weighs these trade-offs every week. They also track drug interactions, storage issues in humid climates, and even disparities in how different populations respond to medications. That’s why posts on medication safety, the effort to prevent errors and ensure equitable access to effective drugs and antibiotic stewardship, responsible use of antibiotics to fight resistance matter so much to their decisions.
What you’ll find below isn’t just a list of articles. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the system works—the science, the politics, the cost pressures, and the real people affected. Whether you’re a patient wondering why your prescription got denied, a clinician trying to navigate formularies, or just someone who wants to understand why your meds cost what they do, these posts connect the dots between policy and your medicine cabinet.
